


Rootin' Tootin' & Shootin'

by xAnubisx



Category: The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Badass OFC, Blood and Injury, Bounty Hunter, Eventual Fluff, Eventual Relationships, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, Explicit Language, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Fighting, Mutual Pining, Protective Din Djarin, Space Cowboy, good parenting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-15 22:48:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 48,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29566362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xAnubisx/pseuds/xAnubisx
Summary: A gunslingin bartender falls in love with a shiny space cowboy and his green son while surviving a wild, wild, galaxy.
Relationships: Din Djarin/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 14
Kudos: 43





	1. Chapter 1

It was another dry, sandy and ridiculously hot day in the deadly desert of Tatooine. She was currently helping Mrs. Borne with unloading some stock for her tiny store, the only store in the small town of Mos Pelgo. She carried the last small crate in and set it on the counter, once again refusing any kind of compensation from the old woman. Everyone in this town is used to working together to survive. She stepped out of the store onto the connected walkway and took a brief break to look up at the position of the sun. She pulled the red bandana down from around the lower half of her face and used the pointed edge to wipe the sweat from her brow and neck. She learned long ago to cover her mouth and nose when working outside in the sandy desert. She’s happy she opted for a simple skintight, white tank top, fore-going her jacket in the stifling heat.

From the position of the sun, she knew it was about time to head over and open up her small cantina, the locals would be stopping by for a quick afternoon break and drink before continuing on with their duties for the remainder of the day. Katlin had taken it upon herself to open up the only social hot spot in the tiny town, believing that the hard-working people of Mos Pelgo deserved a place to retreat to at the end of their grueling days.

She walked inside the small space, leaving the door open. She began placing the stools on the floor and setting up the small bar area. She walked to the far wall and opened up the large shutter covering the wide window, letting natural bright light illuminate the space. She flicked the switch on the wall to turn on the large fan that spanned almost the entire ceiling of the bar. She and Cobb had made it out of metal propeller blades after she bitched in his ear for a solid week about how stifling it was inside.

Since it didn’t take much work to prepare the floor for customers, she made her way behind the bar, grabbing a small bucket and clean rag. She filled the bucket with water from the small sink and added a cleaning tablet. She knew most people wouldn’t bother with cleanliness in a small cantina in a remote place such as this, but she has always taken pride in keeping a clean space, whether it be her own personal quarters, the bar, or otherwise.

She was just finishing up her quick sterilization of the bar top when a shadow fell over the entry way. Without glancing up she called out, “It’s another hot one today, what can I get you?” She was met with complete silence, which wasn’t typical of the locals, so she quickly looked up, her eyes meeting the gleam of silver beskar armor. A Mandalorian. Definitely a rare sight anywhere but especially in these parts. She dropped the towel into the bucket, and brushed her hands lightly on her black pants, “Well you’re definitely not from Mos Pelgo, how can I help you?” she said a bit more seriously.

The man stepped into the space and made his way towards her, leaning slightly on the bar in front of her. Staring directly at her, or at least she assumed so, behind the beskar helmet. She couldn’t even see his eyes behind the dark black T-shaped visor, it was slightly disconcerting as they stood there in a solid minute of silence.

“I was told I could find a Mandalorian here.” He stated, with the sexiest voice she had ever heard.

She just stared at him for a beat before replying, “Well, if you’re going to show up in my town asking questions, you should at least tell me your name first.” She quipped.

“You can call me Mando.” he said a bit gruffly. _How original, she thought._

She knew enough about Mandalorians from her parents’ tutelage growing up. They made it a point to make sure she had a quality education, her mother taking on home-schooling her for hours every day. She knew a brief history, a bit about the fact that they all usually follow a Creed of some sort, how to recognize them, and how rare it is to see one of them these days due to the Great Purge. They are known as the fiercest warriors in the galaxy who put clan and creed before anything else.

“Hm, a Mandalorian you say? I’m not sure, what does this person look like?” She smirked. Of course, she knew who he was referring to, and while she knew she was possibly risking her health by being cheeky, she also didn’t know this man, and if he is looking for who she thinks, she wants to try to gauge his intent first. Cobb Vanth is important to her, so naturally she would feel a bit protective, and she knows that those who aren’t actually Mandalorian shouldn’t don their armor. She tried to tell Vanth this previously, but he just told her she worried too much.

The man before her tilted his head slightly at her, like he was unsure if she was fucking with him or if she truly didn’t know. She thinks he knows she’s fucking with him based on the tone of the question and her small smirk.

“Someone who looks like me.” He said flatly.

At that exact moment, she heard familiar footsteps on the walkway leading to the cantina door.

“Sounds like you mean the Marshal.” She stated.

“The Marshal wears Mandalorian armor?” the man asked, sounding like he didn’t quite believe it to be true.

She just stared back at him, and without looking towards the door said, “Why don’t you ask him yourself?” She then turned slightly and grabbed two glasses off the shelf behind her, already anticipating that drinks would need to be involved for this impending altercation.

Cobb strolled through the door at that exact moment. She always did think that the armor looked a bit off on him, it didn’t quite fit his frame right. Not like the true Mandalorian before her. As he turned from her to look right at Cobb, she took the opportunity to appreciate just how well that armor fit against his body. Her eyes took him in from head to toe and back up again.

 _Sweet stars._ She hasn’t even seen his face and she already knows he _must_ be quite the treasure.

“What brings you here stranger?” Vanth’s question snapping her out of her eye fucking.

“I’ve been searching for you for many parsec’s.” the man stated.

“Well, now you’ve found me.”

 _Dank Farrik_ _Cobb_. Is he seriously going to play it off like he is an actual Mandalorian? Now she’s a little worried. If this guy finds out the truth, she doesn’t even want to think what he’ll do to Vanth.

“Kat, two snorts of spotchka.” She was already holding up the jug of her delicious brew before he finished his sentence. He walked over and grabbed the glasses and jug from the bar, “Why don’t you join me for a drink?”

The mystery man followed Cobb with his eyes, at least she assumed so from the movement of his helmet. He seemed a bit…confused? That was the first sign she saw that something might not be right. Cobb sat down at a table not far from the bar. Mando finally took two steps towards him, and then abruptly stopped when Cobb took his helmet off.

“I’ve never met a real Mandalorian.” Cobb stated with a smile.

The man clad in beskar just stood there in silence for a beat. Body language suddenly tense.

“I’ve heard stories,” Vanth laughed. _Was he completely oblivious to the tension in the room?_ “I know you’re good at killing,” he continued. _For the love of…_ ”and probably none too happy to see me wearing this hardware.” He finished, as he poured two drinks.

“So…I figure only one of us is walking out of here.”

She could swear at that moment her heart dropped into her stomach. This was the moment she decided to tentively step around the bar, she left the blaster she had hidden behind the counter, knowing that if this truly came to blows, her and Cobb could put up a fight, but they would lose.

This was when she looked down and finally noticed a small green child at the side of the counter. _How did she not notice him before?_

“And then I see the little guy,” Cobb continued his speech, “And I think, maybe I pegged you wrong.”

The little being at her feet let out a small “coo” and let go of the pail he was playing with. He looked at Cobb first and then noticing her behind him, he tilted his head up and looked at her with his big brown eyes.

_Well, if he isn’t just the cutest little bean she’d ever seen._

He lifted a hand up towards her with a big goofy smile.

_Oh, my poor heart…_

She smiled down at him. When she looked back up at the men in front of her, she could see that Mando had turned his head slightly to look at her, but quickly re-verted his attention back to the man in front of him.

“Who are you?” He questioned, non to happily.

“I’m Cobb Vanth, Marshal of Mos Pelgo.” He said, downing a drink and pouring another, holding it up as he introduced himself.

She wondered if he was downing spotchka like no tomorrow because he thought he was going to die here. She took a step around the child, standing a few feet to the left side of the Mandalorian. She couldn’t help but want to try to intervene if it came down to a duel. Which is precisely the vibe she was getting from these two.

“Where did you get the armor?”

“Bought it off some Jawas.” Cobb stated. Another drink, down the hatch.

“Hand it over.” Mando demanded, his voice going an octave lower.

_And she really shouldn’t be thinking how much sexier that made him sound at a time like this._

Cobb laughed. Actually laughed. For Kriff’s sake, just how strong did she make that batch of spotchka?

“Look pal, I’m sure you call the shots where you come from, but around here, I’m the one that tells folks what to do.”

The Mandalorian took one step forward, slightly cocking a hip, and looking downright fucking _dangerous_.

“Take it off.” He demanded again, “Or I will.”

Okay, this was getting out of hand real fast. She decided to try to intervene.

“Cobb…” she trailed off when his hand shot up, signaling her to stop talking.

Okay now she was starting to get a bit pissed. She shot him a small glare.

“You really want to do this, in front of the kid?”

“He’s seen worse.” The man said a bit too quickly for her liking.

“And what about her?” Cobb questioned. She shot him an incredulous look.

“I’ve also seen worse, but that doesn’t mean I want one of you dying in my cantina.” She hissed, staring straight at Vanth. They both knew who she was referring too. And while she knew Cobb is a bit of a badass, they _both_ knew that he wouldn’t stand a chance against a real Mandalorian.

The two men continued to stare at each other.

“Right here then?” Cobb asked.

“Right here.”

“Son of a Bantha.” She grumbled. This is ridiculous.

Cobb stood up, his hand hovering over his blaster holstered at his side. The two men stared one another down. They were actually going to have an old-fashioned fucking duel inside her cantina.

And then…the tremors started.

The Mandalorian looked around for the source and the kid fell on his behind. Cobb and her not really reacting, because of course, this isn’t the first time this has happened. Vanth just held up a finger as if to say, ‘Give me a minute and then we can continue to shoot one another’ and made his way to the door.

She rolled her eyes at the entire ordeal and brushed past the Mandalorian, all while mumbling a quiet “Not again.” Under her breath.

Her and Cobb stepped out onto the walkway outside, Mando quickly joining them, standing to her right and slightly behind her. The trio watched on, as the vibrations rattled the small town, the sound of something large headed their way.

Small critters and locals alike ran for safety, knowing all too well what was coming. The three of them watched as something big made its way towards the town under the sand, knocking down structures along its path.

At this moment Kat heard a scared cry from the road in front of them, her head snapped to the right, and she saw a child frozen in fear. The little boy had fallen down due to the tremors and was crying as the monster got closer. She knew him, he was Anders’ boy, his name was Asher. Her heart about burst from her chest, she called out to him, “Asher!” and she didn’t even hesitate as she launched herself from the platform, ran to the middle of the road and scooped the boy up.

She could faintly hear Cobb yelling for her, but her focus was completely on getting the boy to safety. She turned to run back to the platform. The beast was so close, her heart was in her throat at this point. She didn’t know if she could make it. As she was preparing to throw the boy up and away from danger, a hand shot out and grabbed her arm, pulling both her and the boy to safety. She bumped into a beskar clad chest and looked up into a black visor. The Mandalorian. He was looking down at her, his grip still firm on her arm, his other hand had landed on her hip to brace her.

“Thank you.” She whispered breathlessly.

He continued to stare right at her, even though she couldn’t see his eyes, she just _knew_ he was looking at her. And she stared right back. She couldn’t really describe it, but it was like they couldn’t look away from one another.

Well, at least until the sand beast made its way past them. His hands fell away from her as they both turned to watch the monster continue through the town, making its way to its goal. It burst out of the ground and devoured one of Nyk’s bantha’s.

And then just as quick as it arrived, it was gone again. The whole town was so quiet you could hear a pin drop, until there was a shrill voice yelling for her son. 

Asher’s mother, Mina, rounded the corner of a building, frantically looking for her missing boy. When she spotted him in Katlin’s arms, she rushed forward, taking her son and tearfully thanking Kat.

There was a hand on her left shoulder, she turned and found a concerned Cobb Vanth looking down at her.

“You okay?” he asked.

“…Yeah I’m fine.” She gave him a small smile to reassure him.

He then looked at the Mandalorian, who was still standing close to Kat and said, “Maybe we can work something out…”

When the three of them turned to head back into the cantina, a little green head poked out from inside the pot on the floor. He looked up at them, obviously terrified of what just took place outside. Katlin immediately felt horrible, in the commotion, she had completely forgotten about the little guy. Before she could even think about it, she walked forward and picked him up, one of his little claws reaching up and latching into the bandana that hung around her neck.

“I’m so sorry little one, you must’ve been terrified.” She fussed over him for a solid minute, rubbing her hand up and down his back to try to soothe him, before turning to face the two men. When she did, she found Mando staring at her again, his helmet slightly tilted towards her. She assumed that the child was his foundling. Why else would he be hauling around a kid? And she was fairly certain, the man under the armor wasn’t a green…well, whatever the kid was. She can’t say she’s ever seen anything like him before.

She made her way towards him, not sure if he would want to take the kid from her or not. But the child seemed quite content in her arms. Still clutching on to her with a firm grip.

“He likes you.” The man rasped. “What you did out there for the other child…” he trailed off for a second, “I respect you for it.”

Quite frankly, she was astonished. She knew that Mandalorians were known to be reclusive and ruthless. Most tales paint them as terrifying people, so to hear such a…compliment from him, well, she didn’t really know how to react.

“Thank you,” she shyly smiled at him, “but I’m pretty sure if it wasn’t for you, Asher and I would’ve been Krayt food.”

“No. You were willing to sacrifice yourself in order to save that boy. In Mandalorian culture, there is nothing more important than the well-being of the younglings.”

Before she could respond, Vanth so graciously cut in. “If you two are finished flirtin’, we should discuss the beast.” Kat shot him an exasperated look and could feel her face warming up a bit at his comment.

“Let’s walk and talk.” Cobb said, as he walked past them back outside.

Kat quickly followed him, not daring to look back at Mando. The three began their casual stroll around the town, watching the re-emerged locals who had already started to fix the damage caused by the sand creature.

“That creature has been terrorizing these parts since long before Mos Pelgo was established, thanks to this armor, I’ve been able to protect the town from bandits and the sand people. They look to me to protect them, but a Krayt dragon is too much for me to take on alone.” Cobb sighed, slowing to a stop and turning to the Mandalorian. “Help me kill it, I’ll give you the armor.”

Katlin stood off to the side, still cradling the child. She grimaced slightly at Cobb’s “offer”, she knew without a doubt that the other man could just take the armor by force if he wanted too. That him being willing to help the town take on such a dangerous beast was slim to none. Mando turned his helmet slightly her way, there was a beat of silence, and then he looked back at Cobb.

“Deal.” Wait what? She was honestly taken back by his answer.

“I’ll head back to my ship, blow it out of the sand from the sky, use the bantha as bait.” He stated.

She cut in, never one to be a silent party, “It’s not so simple. Your ship passes above it? It’ll sense the vibration and just stay deep underground.” She explained, his attention back on her. “But…we know where it lives.”

“How far?” he questioned.

Cobb looked out towards the vast desert, “Not far.” He said. “We can head out now.” And then he was off to get his speeder ready.

Mando turned his full attention to her. “You stay here, I trust you to watch the kid.”

She scoffed, “Like hell. I’m coming with you two.”

“You don’t even have a weapon.” He replied.

She gave him an incredulous look, “And what makes you think I don’t have a weapon?” His helmet tilted down and then back up, clearly giving her a once over.

“I don’t see one.”

She smirked at him before replying, “It’s on a shelf, behind the bar counter, I like to keep it there, you know, in case someone comes into my cantina looking for trouble.” She raised a single brow at him. He quirked his helmet just slightly, and she would like to believe that he was enjoying her snark. She handed him the kid, not giving him time to argue, “Just gotta grab it real quick.”

She crossed the road, hopping back up onto the walkway and entered the bar. She rounded the counter and grabbed the leg holster she had discarded there and strapped it on, then reached over and grabbed her 434 Deathhammer blaster and slid it into her holster. It was her most prized possession having been given to her by her father years ago, not long before his death. She grabbed her jacket from a hook on the wall and quickly closed up the cantina. She made her way over to where she knew Cobb would be.

She rounded the corner and saw both men leaning against their speeders and partaking in casual conversation. Probably coming up with some sort of game plan. Both head’s turning her way when they heard her boots hitting the sand.

“That’s some serious firepower you have strapped to that leg.” Was it just her, or did Mando sound impressed?

“Yeah, and she knows how to use it too.” Cobb chuckled. She threw him a sly grin and came to a stop beside them.

“Yeah?” she asked rhetorically, “And I noticed that Amban rifle of yours,” she said, glancing to where he had it secured on the speeder and then back to him, “always wanted one of those.”

His helmet ticked slightly. _Oh yeah, he’s impressed. Probably surprised I even know what it is._

“Alright, who am I riding with?” She responded playfully while deliberately looking right at the Mandalorian.


	2. Chapter 2

And that’s how she found herself on the back of Mando’s speeder, her arms around his waist, and the baby on the back in his carrier. Cobb was right beside them, and while they sped across the desert, he decided this was the perfect time to fill Mando in on just how he came into possession of the stolen armor. She decided to tune out of the conversation as soon as Vanth mentioned the Death Star and the occupation being over. She didn’t want to be reminded of her father. And she was a bit distracted if she were being totally honest, with her body pressed tightly to the back of the man in front of her. One thing she knows for certain, she’s happy she decided to braid her hair and pin it up in a pretty bun today, or she’d be struggling with it now. She’s also glad that she had grabbed her dark green canvas jacket and had pulled the red bandana back up over her nose and mouth to keep her from eating sand particles.

Before long, they had slowed their speed and were riding into the canyon. Upon hearing an awful snarling, both men whipped their speeders to the side, stopping abruptly. Her and Mando quickly dismounted, and as she crouched down for cover and pulled her blaster out, Mando grabbed his pulse rifle and joined her in a move so slick she almost missed it. She glanced over and saw that Cobb had done the same. The growling continued; she recognized the sound immediately.

“Where there are massiff’s, there are Tuskan raiders, most likely.” She whispered to the man next to her.

He grunted in response, not taking his focus off the area in front of them. Sure enough, a massiff came creeping around a boulder, opening its snout wide and growling at them something fierce. Mando started slowing lowering his rifle, she glanced over at him quickly, wondering what the hell he was doing, but decided to stay quiet for now. And then all of a sudden, there were more of them, coming out of hiding one-by-one. A whole pack. _Well, kriff._

Mando stood up and let out a deep and loud Massiff call. And all the growls immediately stopped.

_Unconventional. But if kriffing worked._

She faintly heard Cobb asking him what the hell he was doing as Mando made his way towards the reptilians, and then her jaw just about dropped to the floor when the pack leader ran to him for tummy rubs, tail wagging and all.

_What in the KRIFF. Who is this guy?_

Then Tuskan raiders strolled around the corner. She shot up to her feet and pointed her blaster right at them. Her face hardening immediately. Cobb shot her a worried look and raised his hand to try to placate her. Mando started _talking_ to them using their dialect and hand gestures.

“Hey partner, you want to tell _us_ what’s going on?” Cobb asked.

Mando turned to look at them, “They want to kill the Krayt dragon too.” He stated coolly, then slightly turned his helmet her way noticing her body language and hardened eyes. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Cobb look her way hesitantly, knowing she wouldn’t be happy with this situation. She looked from the Tuskans to Mando and then slowly lowered her blaster.

* * *

The one thing she was _certain_ of in her life, was that she _never_ thought she’d find herself sitting in the middle of a Tuskan camp around a fire. She knew that her two male companions could see she was on edge, perched on a log with her right hand merely an inch from her blaster.

Mando occasionally glanced her way as he spoke with the raiders. Cobb sitting in the middle of one and the Mandalorian. She was sitting a few paces away on Mando’s left side, the farthest seat from the raiders. Sick of Mando’s glances, she zeroed her attention in on the child who was sitting in the sand, nestled between the man’s legs. She couldn’t understand the conversation anyway.

Before long, the talks turned angry. Cobb refused to drink some nasty liquid they shoved towards him, the raiders accusing him of insulting them along with the villagers stealing their water supply. Mando translating for her and her friend throughout. Then they started accusing them of killing their fellow sand people.

Cobb quickly cut in, “They _raided_ our village! _We_ ,” he pointed between himself and her, “defended the town.”

Mando raised his hand, “Lower your voice.”

She had heard _enough._ She scoffed and shot up to her feet, sending a scathing look the Tuskans way. Thankfully, none of them turned a weapon on her due to her abrupt movement, and she quickly strode away from the group. She walked a ways away, still within eyesight of her companions, but far enough away where she didn’t have to listen anymore. She spotted a large boulder and strolled up to it. Kat took a deep breath to try and calm the emotions raging inside her, she leaned against the rock and looked up at the stars. She was willing herself to think of _anything_ _but_ the incident that was brought up, but she was struggling to do so.

Suddenly she heard a loud hissing sound, she twisted slightly around to see Mando standing above the group, fire, _literal fire_ , spewing from his right vambrace. She barely heard him ask a question, tersely it sounded like, before she twisted back around and resumed her stargazing.

After about ten minutes or so, she heard footsteps approaching. She knew it wasn’t any of the raiders, they would have no cause to approach her, and the footfalls were far too heavy. They sounded like steel-toe or combat boots.

“I can tell you’re upset.” Came a modulated voice from her right. She glanced over and saw Mando standing a few paces away. She looked back out to the never-ending desert that surrounded them.

“Hm, and I thought I was doing such a good job at hiding it.” She spat.

She heard a small sigh come from him as he slowly closed the distance between them and leaned back against the same rock she was resting against.

“I take it the Tuskans aren’t your favorite people.” He stated.

Before she could stop herself, she let out a small humorless laugh. She ducked her head down, staring at the ground in front of her, her right boot, toeing the sand below her feet. There was a long stretch of silence, as she tried to choke out a response. She’s surprised he stayed there with her. And then…

“One of them killed my mother.” She whispered, absentmindedly twisting the ring on her right index finger. It was her mother’s wedding ring. A simple gold band, nothing extravagant, but to her it was one of her most prized possessions. She could see his helmet whip towards her in her peripheral. Tears started to blur her vision.

_Dank farrik, this is exactly what she didn’t want to happen._

“When they raided our village, like Cobb said earlier,” she swallowed against a lump forming in her throat. “We were trying to fight them off, they were trying to take whatever they could get their hands on, they didn’t care who they hurt in the process.” She cleared her throat, had to in order to continue. “I took off to help Cobb, watching his back since he was in the thick of it…and while I was doing that, one of them had broken into our home.” She sighed and looked up at him. “My mother, well she…had a bit of a firey spirit, so naturally she tried to fight back.” She swallowed again as a tear rolled down her cheek. “But the raider was able to over-power her and he killed her. Stole some valuables, the little bit we had, including a few things we had left of my fathers.” She quickly wiped away the tear, feeling way too exposed at the moment. “So yeah, you could say they aren’t my favorite people.”

He was completely still beside her, body language a little more tense than before. She wasn’t sure if it was because he felt awkward or if he was upset for her. But then he spoke and she knew it was the latter.

“I’m sorry.” He softly replied, a heaviness in his tone.

“It’s not like you knew before, so it’s okay.”

“No, I…could tell you were bothered by them before, when we were in the canyon. Should’ve asked then.” He spoke. He sounded angry, probably at the raiders and also a little at himself, “…we don’t have to…” he continued.

Kat cut him off. “No,” she stated firmly, “You’re right. If we have any hopes of taking out the Krayt dragon…we’re going to need their help.”

She could hear him sigh through the modulator, “…Kat, we can…” he began, using her name for the first time.

“I just want the damn thing dead already. Before it really decides to hit the town. Or the damn school.” She shook her head, frustrated with the entire situation. “Please, let’s just do this. I’ll be fine.” She insisted as she looked directly at his visor.

He simply nodded at her. And then the two made their way back to the fire, which had been long abandoned by the raiders who had thankfully, turned in for the evening. Cobb was now laying on the ground, partially propped up against a log.

“Katlin, are you okay?” He asked, with concern and a bit of pain in his eyes.

“Yeah, I’m good.” She brushed him off, “We should try to get some rest I suppose. Long day tomorrow.”

And shortly after, she found herself in almost the same position, drifting off to sleep, with the Mandalorian not far from her side.

* * *

She was laying half perched belly down against the rocky mountainside, Cobb to her right and Mando on his other side, followed by three of the Tuskan raiders. She looked down at the massive cave entrance below them as one of the tuskans guided a bantha towards it. The Tuskans beside Mando were talking their gibberish to him. Mando took the binoc’s to get a better view at the cave entrance.

“They say it lives in there. They say it sleeps.” He translated. “It lives in an abandoned sarlac pit.”

“There’s no such thing as an abandoned sarlac pit.” Cobb answered.

“There is if you eat the sarlac.” Mando returned. “They are laying out a bantha to protect the settlement. They’ve studied its digestion cycle for generations. They feed it to make it sleep longer.”

Kat listened to him explain, not taking her eyes off the goings on below. When the bantha was secured at the entrance, the Tuskan guide let out a loud call to rouse the dragon. Once the vibrations started, signaling its awakened state, the raider turned and started running back as fast as he could, tripping and falling multiple times.

“He’s not gonna make it…” she whispered, her heart actually going out to the guy as the tremors got stronger and louder. Cobb ticked his head towards her, most likely surprised by the small bit of pity in her tone.

Unfortunately for the raider, the Krayt did emerge, sooner rather than later, bursting from the cave entrance and zeroing right in on him, completely ignoring the bantha offering. With one big swallow, the man was gone, and the dragon slid back into its hidey-hole.

_Horrible way to go._

She heard the kid let out a distressed whimper and immediately looked over at him, he ducked his head down behind the rock surface to hide safely next to his adoptive father. Mando looked towards her and Cobb, “They might be open to some fresh ideas.” He quipped dryly.

She couldn’t help the small snort of laughter that passed her lips, shaking her head as she stood up on the ledge, brushing her pants off as she did. She stepped around the two men, dipped down, and scooped the little green bean into her arms. He buried his face in her neck as she lightly bounced him up and down in a calming gesture.

“It’s okay little bean, your daddy is not going to let anything happen to you” she whispered, “And I’m not either.”

She thought she said it quietly enough, but apparently not as she saw Mando’s head whip around in her direction. She simply winked at him and started making her way down the mountainside.

* * *

A few minutes later they were standing in a half circle, staring down at a mock-up of the cave and what she assumed to be the Krayt dragon. The Tuskans all squawking at the same time. She let out a tired sigh.

“What are the bones?” Cobb quietly inquired to Mando.

“That’s the Krayt dragon.” Mando simply replied.

“And those little rocks?” Cobb asked next.

“That’s us.” Mando said.

“It’s not to scale.” Cobb snarked.

“I think it is.” Mando replied.

“Can’t be that’s too big.” Cobb stated unbelieving.

Mando then made a few more hand gestures towards the raiders, while she stood there holding the baby, looking on, completely undisturbed by the conversation. Honestly, it wouldn’t surprise her if it was actually that big.

“It’s to scale.” Mando confirmed.

“I’ve only seen its head and neck. That’s a _whole_ lot bigger than I guessed.” Cobb said, a bit unsure with this predicament. “Might be time to rethink our arrangement.”

“No.” Kat butt in, “We _have_ to kill this kriffing thing Cobb. Think of the children back in town. Little Asher?”

Once again, Mando’s head swiveled her way. She kept looking down at the display, with determination and a bit of concern on her face. Mando turned his head towards the Tuskans when they started croaking at him again, he made some more hand signs, and then they tossed more rocks down. Her brows furrowed a bit, but before she could ask, Cobb beat her to the punch.

“That’s more like it, but where are they getting the reinforcements?” he questioned.

“I volunteered your village.” Mando responded, completely unbothered by what he just said. She cocked her head to the side, slightly narrowing her eyes at him and pursing her lips a bit. She couldn’t say she’s happy with him just volunteering the townspeople like that, but when she thinks about it, she supposes she understands. They definitely needed more help. And the townsfolk are hardy people, surviving enslavement, raiders, and just the daily life of living in Mos Pelgo and Tatooine.

Shortly after, they were racing back towards said town to break the news.


	3. Chapter 3

“They attacked us less than a year ago,” Cobb began as they pulled up outside her cantina, “Killed about a half a dozen of us by the mining cave…I’d say we both took down about twice as many Tuskans.”

She unwrapped her arms from Mando’s body and hopped off the speeder as Cobb explained.

“The town respects you, my guess is they will listen to reason.” Mando said, one leg on the ground, one still propped up on a pedal, and one hand still on a handle.

_Kriff, why is everything he does so attractive?_

She took a deep breath to ground herself. _Focus_.

“I’m not so sure about that Mando, almost everyone in this town lost someone that day.” Kat said as she made her way towards her bar, re-opening it and walking in. Everything was as she left it, so all she had to do was re-open the window for the impending town meeting.

Over the next twenty minutes everyone in town had filled up her bar, she spent that time passing out drinks, on the house just this once, and small talking with every table. Everyone here knew everyone, like one little family pretty much. So she flitted from table to table, stopping at the occasional local who was standing against the wall, passing sarcastic quips back and forth. She let out a rather loud laugh at one joke as she walked away, quickly glancing over towards Mando, who was leaning with his back against the bar.

_Had he been watching her?_ She’s pretty sure she’d felt eyes on her pretty much the whole time. She brushed a piece of hair that had fallen from her braid back behind her ear and gave him a small smile as she passed by, placing the empty spotchka jug on the counter. Cobb walked in with the last two men who had been straggling to the meeting. She stood next to Mando, about a foot between them, the child was perched on top of the bar counter staring back and forth between the two. She leaned over the counter on her tip toes and grabbed the small bowl of cracknuts, placing them in front of the kid so he could snack during the talks. He cooed and smiled big at her, she couldn’t help but to laugh and brush a finger along his cheek. He really was so kriffing cute.

She turned back to face the crowd. Yep, Mando had totally been watching her.

Cobb started the talks off with introducing our new friend.

“…their good at killing.” He stated. _Sheesh, just go for the gut Cobb._

As expected, once the Marshal revealed the actual reason for this impromptu meeting, and the fact that they would have to work with the Tuskans, everyone started grumbling and letting out yells of discontent. Kat let out a shrill whistle to get everyone to calm down and shut up. She didn’t move from her place as she calmly said, “Listen, you all know how I feel about the sand people, make no mistake, Cobb and I don’t like this anymore than you do, but this…agreement, is our best chance.”

Most of the townsfolk looked at her with sadness, her mother had been popular amongst the people, but there were still a few grumbles around the room.

Mando stepped forward, “I’ve seen the size of that thing, it will swallow your entire town when the fancy hits it, you’re lucky Mos Pelgo isn’t a sand pit already,” he said, “I know these people, they are brutal, but so is the dune sea, they have survived for thousands of years in these sands, and they know the Krayt dragon better than anyone here.”

Kat looked from face to face, seeing that his words were starting to placate them all. Her eyes flicked to Mando, she couldn’t help the admiration she felt for him in this moment. He didn’t _need_ to be helping them at all. He could’ve just taken what he wanted and left, but he decided to stay and help. She hadn’t known him long. Literally just two days, and she respected him a great deal. She had feelings emerging that she knew shouldn’t in such a small amount of time.

“They are raiders, it’s true, but they also keep their word.” He went on, “We have struck a deal, if we are willing to leave the carcass and its ichor, they will stand beside us in battle, and vow to never raise a blaster to this town again unless one of _you_ breaks the peace first.”

She knew he had them when they all started looking at each other, nodding their heads in agreement and determination.

* * *

She took it upon herself to organize the loading of the explosives and weapons needed for the fight. She spent quite a bit of time instructing the townsfolk on what was going to be needed for the trek and the battle to come. Everyone took her direction and orders with no qualms, everyone respected her just as they did Cobb, and her late mother. She had never hesitated in defending the town and helped anyone in town who needed it. She had opened the only place of respite for them. They loved her, it was very apparent, and Mando noticed it as he stood back and talked with Vanth.

“You think it’ll work?” Cobb asked as she passed between them and through the door, handing a smaller crate off to a man.

“It better,” Mando replied, “joining forces is their only hope.” She walked back through and opened another crate of explosives, motioning for a few of the men to start packing them up, carefully.

Once everyone was clear on the process, she decided to join Cobb and Mando on the porch connected to the store house. She needed a damn break. As she walked out, she heard the sounds of bantha’s approaching and noticed almost everyone had stopped what they were doing, staring out into the desert. She stepped up next to Mando on his left side and looked over, squinting her eyes a bit in the bright sun, she watched briefly as the Tuskans approached on the backs of their banthas. After a short pause, Katlin decided she’d had enough of the ogling. She just wanted to get this over with.

“Alright! Back to work! Let’s go!” she clapped her hands loudly to get the townspeople to snap out of their frozen states. They all quickly started moving again.

Mando walked off to the side and leaned against a crate. Cobb stood at the other end of the platform monitoring the assembly line that had formed to stack and pack the explosives onto the banthas. Kat made her way towards Mando, dabbing her brow and neck with her bandana. It was hotter than hell. She leaned against the front of the small crate next to him, leaving little space between them. She hoped he didn’t mind the close proximity, if he did, she figured he would move or tense up, but he didn’t. They stood there together in silence for a few beats, her zoning out, tired as all get out and him, well, she couldn’t really tell what he was looking at.

“So, what’s up with you and Vanth?” He suddenly asked, with that sexy rasp of his.

“Me and Vanth?” she asked, a bit perplexed by what he meant, also a bit surprised he had started a conversation first. They hadn’t really talked much, at least not one-on-one, since that night in the tuskan camp. She’s noticed he doesn’t usually go out of this way to start or engage in personal conversation, only talking when its needed.

He turned his helmet her way, now she knew _exactly_ what he was looking at.

“Yeah, you two seem…close…” He trailed off.

She squinted at him just a bit, “…are you…asking if we…are together?” she questioned brokenly.

He just tilted his helmet at her just slightly. For some reason, she knew he was. And she let out a laugh.

“No, it’s not like that.” She chuckled, “Cobb is like…the uncle I never had or wanted for that matter.” She explained, smirking at him, “He was good friends with my father, my dad relocated my mother and myself here so Cobb could look after us while he was off fighting in the rebellion.”

“Your father fought in the rebellion?” Mando asked.

“Yeah,” she smiled solemnly, “He was a fighter pilot, knew how to fly the X-wing, but mainly flew a B-wing starfighter, he was a member of Blade Squadron. A real badass.” She laughed, she reached inside her jacket, finding the inside pocket she had sewn in right over her right breast. She pulled out an old but well cared for patch, she handed it to him. He took it and held it with care, recognizing it as a squadron patch. He knew it was her fathers at some point. It was the image of a B-Wing fighter over a lightning bolt, with faded letters going down each side. It said “strike as lightning” in Aurebesh.

“That was his original patch, after it got a little wear and tear, he gave it to me, and replaced it with a new one.” She said, “That and this blaster, are the only things I have left of him.”

Mando looked back at her and handed her the patch, she slid it back inside her jacket. “You sound like you were very close.” He said softly, still gazing at her under his helmet. She looked down at her crossed feet, to hide the tears forming in her eyes, and started picking at a nail.

“We were.” She whispered, “He’s the one who taught me how to shoot, taught me how to fight and defend myself.” She took a deep breath and then looked back up at him with a sly smile on her face, “Now, I’m not on the same level as a Mandalorian, but…I can hold my own if need be.” She gazed at him, the sun making her light hazel eyes sparkle. They were almost gold in appearance; he’d never seen eyes that color before. He thought they were beautiful, just like the rest of her.

“I bet you can.” He replied. They continued to stare at each other, until a loud crash startled her. Her head whipped a bit to the left, her and the Mandalorian both immediately standing up from their casual stances. One of the Tuskans had dropped an explosive on the platform.

_Yikes._

The man that had handed it to him, stepped forward, “Hey! What are you doing? That’s an explosive! What are you trying to blow the whole place up!?” He angrily cried. The tuskan stomped forward, growling and pounding his chest, clearly not happy with being yelled at. Cobb had started moving forward from the other end of the porch, but Kat beat him there. She stepped in between the two arguing men, Mando stepping closer to her, just in case.

She looked over to the man she knew, Bran, and put her hand up on his chest, pushing him back slightly, “Take it easy. It was an accident.” She stated firmly but calmly, trying to de-escalate the situation. He looked at her like she had grown another head. “What do you want to do, huh?” He sputtered at her, taking it as her defending the Tuskan. He pushed his body forward a bit against her hand. She saw Mando take another step forward out of the corner of her eye, like he was going to protect her if need be. She’s pretty sure her heart skipped.

She pushed Bran back gently but more firmly said, “It was an _accident_!” Giving him a long hard look. He looked back at her and nodded, finally backing off. Everyone dispersed and went back to work. Mando leaned back against the crate as Cobb walked over, giving her a nod of his own. He stood where she had been previously. She turned and walked the few steps towards the men, bringing a hand up to briefly rub a temple.

“It’s gonna be great.” Cobb snarked with a sarcastic smile on his face.

She huffed at him, shaking her head slightly and looking out into the desert.

* * *

A few hours later, after a long, agonizingly slow trek, they made it back to the Krayt cave. The townspeople and raiders dismounting the banthas, some immediately getting to work on unloading the explosives and setting up what looked to be giant sling shots for the spears.

A group of them, herself, Cobb and Mando included, made their way closer to the cave. She saw a Tuskan walking forward and then kneeling, placing a hand on the sandy ground. After a minute, he turned, making hand signs towards them.

“What’s he saying?” Cobb asked.

“He said its sleeping, if we listen carefully, we can hear it breathing.” Mando answered.

She saw a raider come forward and hand Cobb what looked like the same thing they tried to get him to drink when they were at their encampment. This time he took it, still hesitant, but drinking it down. She cocked a brow at him and grimaced slightly. _Better him than me_.

“Let’s get to work.” Mando said.

They turned and headed back towards the others. A good portion of the explosives already unloaded. As they walked back Mando explained,

“They say the belly is the only weak spot, so we have to hit it from below.”

Kat looked to him, “We’ll have to dig a pretty large ditch then, bury the charges pretty close to the entrance of the cave.” She said.

He looked to her and nodded, “Then we’ll have to wake it up, get it angry enough so it’ll charge.”

She nodded back at him and broke off, starting to instruct everyone on what to do. She had a group start digging a large but fairly shallow ditch, and another group start the fill it with charges as they went. Working simultaneously to save time. The Tuskans were assembling their machines, cranking back the spears which were connected by long, thick ropes. After a bit, Kat made her way over to Cobb and Mando.

“Should be ready to go soon, everything’s just about set.” She said as she came to a stop next to Mando.

“Alright, once it’s far enough out, belly exposed above the explosives, you hit the detonator.” He said, looking to Cobb. Just then, with perfect timing, a young girl from the town approached Cobb.

“Here you go Marshal.” She said, looking up at him and handing him the detonator. Kat briefly wondered why a child was holding the switch to begin with.

“Thank you Jo, and you stay safe okay?” Cobb responded. The young girl smiled and nodded up at him, quickly moving back away from the battle ground. Kat had previously instructed the younger kids to retreat back to the safety of the rock cliffs, the same ones they had been perched on early this morning. Cobb glanced between her and Mando and then the three of them made their way towards where the spears were set up. As a trio of Tuskans once again made their way towards the entrance of the cave, Mando turned his helmet towards her.

“If things get too hot, I’d like you to take care of the kid.”

She looked at him and nodded, “Of course. He’ll be my first priority. I won’t let anything happen to him.” She affirmed.

“Thank you.” He said quietly.

“Mando…” she paused, “If things do get hot…please try to be careful.” She said softly, “The child does seem to care for you a great deal after-all.” She finished, still looking at him as they walked. He inclined his helmet, barely noticeable, but she noticed, already starting to pick up on his limited expressions. She wondered if he picked up on the underlying message there. _She also, had grown to care for him._

Cobb poked his head forward, “Oh, and what about me, huh Katlin?”

“You too…old man.” She snarked. He placed his hand over his heart, like her comment physically hurt and scoffed at her. She rolled her eyes and smirked at him.

_So dramatic._

A loud croak interrupted their banter. And soon enough, they felt vibrations under their feet, a loud growling growing closer and closer. The Tuskans turned and started hauling ass away from the cave, the Krayt dragon popping out of the sand, mouth open wide, sharp fangs large enough to be visible by a blind man she thought.

_Son of a bantha that things massive._ The pucker effect was definitely at a 10 instantly.

Sling shots started firing, spears shooting forward and imbedding themselves into the Krayt dragons face, intending to keep the beast out of its hole. She saw one of the Tuskans trip and fall.

_They just can’t stay upright, can they?_

The dragon wasted no time in chomping down and swallowing the poor sod.

“Damn,” she breathed, “can’t catch a kriffing break, can they?”

She swears she heard Mando let out an amused grunt, but she couldn’t be sure over the loud sounds of the beast in front of them.

“Dank Farrik, its going back in!” Mando said.

Some of the Tuskans ran forward, grabbing the ropes, as if they could possibly stop it. Tuskans and townsfolk both started firing at the beast, trying desperately to piss it off enough that it would start moving back out and not in.

“It’s retreating.” Mando pointed out the obvious.

“I’m gonna hit it.” Cobb said, eyeing the button on the detonator.

“No! Wait. We only have one shot at this, we’ve got to get it out.” Kat stated, throwing her hand out and towards Cobb in a gesture for him to cool his jetpack. She then turned and whistled loudly, signaling the group she armed with grenades to run forward. And they did, lobbing grenades straight into its face. Kat turned back and started walking forward, determined as ever, her hand shot down to her Deathhammer blaster, pulling it out quick as lightning and started blasting away, aiming for one of its eyes, trying to piss it off. Sure enough, one of her bolts hit right next to its eye, not exactly where she was aiming, since it kept moving around so much, but hitting the sensitive flesh surrounding the orb. That combined with the other blaster shots and grenades being lobbed its way, caused the beast to re-emerge. She had walked quite a ways forward and she heard Cobb yell for her when the Krayt started forward again.

“KAT! Don’t get so close!”

She paid him no mind. This thing was pissing her off. Then she saw one of her villagers fall due to the intense quake. Before she could even blink, the dragon had swallowed him up.

_Okay, now she’s really pissed._

More spears flew forward, stabbing it over and over. Tuskans still pulling on the ropes. Blaster shots and grenades flying. Still shooting, she gradually started to back up towards Vanth and Mando as the beast made its way farther out of the cave. Soon enough she was only a few feet in front of them, from where she started. She had shot so many times at the beast that her power pack was already almost drained, she smoothly hit the release button, snatching a replacement pack from her belt pouch and reloading. She resumed firing, until the damn thing reared its head upwards, snapping the ropes, thrashing its head and sending Tuskans flying through the air. It started forward, quickly, and everyone stood frozen, as it let out a shrill sound, beginning to open its mouth wide. She lowered her blaster and snapped her head to the left, yelling at everyone to retreat.

“MOVE! GET BACK! NOW!” she yelled, motioning with her arm as she did so. Everyone started running backwards, retreating towards the rocky mountains, as the beast started spewing yellow acid, hitting some stragglers and killing them instantly.

“SON OF A…KRIFF!” She swore loudly, her frustration with this thing coming to a head.

She could hear Mando behind her, “Almost…almost…” he muttered, and then, as the beast came forward a bit more, “NOW!” He pointed to Cobb. He pressed the button, igniting the explosives. The Krayt let out a loud piercing wail, and then dove into the ground, sending a shockwave of wind and sand flying towards everyone.

Everyone close up hit the ground due to the force of the wind and tremors flowing through the sand. Kat unsteadily took the last few steps back until she was standing next to Mando, whose hand shot out and grabbed her left arm to steady her, the vibrations making their way that far out away from the blast area. He pulled her a little towards him in the process and her left hand came up and grabbed the exposed side of his flight suit where the armor didn’t cover.

When things started to settle, everyone began to tentatively stand up, looking around cautiously. The sudden and immense silence didn’t sit well with her. She looked over to the man still holding onto her arm.

“I don’t…think it’s dead.” She said.

“Me either.” He replied.

And then, a rumbling started, more vibrations, but they were coming from an elevated point. Suddenly, the beast burst from the top of the mountain in front of them. Opening its mouth again and letting loose another stream of acid, taking out a decent number of raiders and a few more men from the village.

“It’s picking us off like womp-rats!” Cobb seethed. He started to stomping off towards his speeder and grabbed his rifle. “Let’s get after it!” he called back over his shoulder.

Mando looked to her quickly, “Protect the…” he started but she cut him off just as quick.

“The child. I know. And I will.” She urged, “Now go, show this beast what a Mandalorian can do.” She winked and pushed him back lightly with her hand that was still connected to his side. He looked at her for half a beat longer and then took off towards his own speeder, grabbing his Amban rifle and jet packing up towards the beast with Vanth in tow. Kat rushed over to Mando’s speeder where the baby was still sitting nestled in his carrier. She stood right next to him, blaster still at the ready, prepared to shield him if she needed to.

She watched as the two men landed high on the rock above, snapping their rifles up and plying it with shots. The dragon slowly turned towards them, opening up its maw and lunging forward. Mando and Vanth flew off just in time, as the beast bit down on the rock, completely obliterating it.

They both flew back to the surface, turning and readying their rifles once more. Armed with their own long-range weapons, Tuskans and townspeople ran up behind them to assist. It was killing her that she couldn’t be up there with them, but her blaster wouldn’t hit the beast at such a long range, and she told Mando she would protect his child. So she stayed put.

The Krayt disappeared again. Everyone waiting to see when it would re-emerge. All of a sudden it burst through the high sand dune behind them, she twisted around to look. Thankfully it was off to the far-side of the dune, away from the young ones hiding up on the rocky cliffside, and a good enough distance away from her and the kid. She watched as it swam through the sand, diving in and out quickly making its way forward towards its armed attackers. Everyone but Mando and Cobb scattering to try to get away from it.

Then, Cobb fired the missile from his jetpack straight into the dragon’s face.

_Well, that’ll definitely get its attention._

It turned from the raiders and villagers fleeing its wrath and headed towards the two men off to its right. She saw Mando lift his rifle and dislodge the tube connecting to Cobb’s jetpack, sending him flying through the air and away from the fight. She watched as the Mandalorian stood there, rifle at the ready, waiting for the beast to get closer. The bantha pulled its stake out of the ground and started to retreat in fear. She saw Mando run back and grab the rope, keeping it in place and turning back to face the Krayt.

It got closer and closer, all while Kat wondered what the hell he was doing. And then her heart just about stopped. The beast opened its maw and plunged straight down, devouring Mando and the bantha.

“NO!” Kat screamed. Her throat constricting, and tears starting to blur her vision.

She was so preoccupied with what she just witnessed, that she didn’t even see Cobb spiral down and hit the ground, rolling to a stop and sitting up. He sat and stared at the spot where Mando was, where he was now…not. And then he looked over to Kat. Seeing her stand there, her face twisted in anguish.

And then it was completely quiet. So incredibly quiet.

The baby cooed and looked up at her, as if asking her where his father disappeared too. She reached down and picked the child up, holding him tight to her chest.

“Come on…” she whispered, still staring ahead, heart pounding. “Come on…please…” to whom she was begging, she had no clue. A tear spilled down her cheek. Another few beats of silence passed by, painfully. And then, she felt it.

Rumbling. Vibrations.

The beast burst out of the ground again, letting out what sounded like a painful cry. And then she saw what looked like…electricity? Her brows furrowed slightly, and then it clicked.

_The Amban rifle. Man, I gotta get one of those._

At the same time as her fleeting thought, the beast opened its mouth, and out flew Mando. She choked out a relieved sob, drawing in a much-needed breath, and watched him twist around in mid-air before he hit the detonator, the Krayt’s stomach exploding. And then it died, with an anguished cry, crashing heavily to the ground. A massive shockwave rocked the area, everyone once again falling to the sand. Kat was able to reach out and stumble against the speeder, still maintaining her footing, but barely.

She saw Mando fly down and land on solid ground again. He briefly looked at her and the child, making sure they were okay. _Like she was the one who was just inside a kriffing Krayt dragon!_

And then he turned, looking at the beast, checking that it was truly dead. Everyone stood again and began cheering and jumping for joy at their victory. Kat just stood there for a moment, completely in awe of what this man just did.

_He’s really something else._

He turned and started making his way towards her. The movement breaking her out of her revere.

Suddenly she was flooded with a wave of anger.

She took off, running towards him. When she reached him, she wasted no time in shooting her hand out and slamming it on his chest plate. Roughly pushing him with enough force to actually make him rock backwards a bit. In all actuality, he was probably just tired after that whole ordeal and didn’t have the energy to fight her.

“What did I say? Huh? I TOLD you to be _careful_!” She yelled at him, “Do you call that being careful?!” Overwhelming emotion ran through her and another tear fell from her eyes. He stood stock still for a moment, tilting his helmet at her like he seems to have done a hundred times in the past few days since they’d met.

_Stars, it feels like it’s been longer than that._ Her hand slid down the beskar, running through some kind of green slime, and if she had been in the right mind she might be repulsed, but at the moment she just couldn’t give a kriff.

And then she threw her left arm around his neck, her right still clutching onto the kid, her body pressing into his, as she hugged him tight to her. He stood there, still as ever, and she knew he was probably taken back by her reaction. She didn’t think he was the type of man who received or welcomed many hugs. Especially of the bone-crushing variety. But she just didn’t care. At all.

“When I said show the beast what a Mandalorian can do, I didn’t really have that in mind.” She whispered ending the statement with a small laugh. She felt his left arm slowly snake around her waist and squeeze her tight.

“I didn’t either.” He replied softly, “I just kind of…improvised.”

She pulled back and looked at him like he was crazy, and then she laughed again. Mando took the moment to sling his rifle onto his back in a smooth, very practiced motion. They had broken their hug, but he still had his hand on her hip, and she didn’t want to let go of him either, clutching her hand into his cowl. She bounced the baby up a bit higher on her right side, looking down at him, she saw him peering up at Mando, his little clawed hand clapping his father’s chest plate.

“We were both very worried, weren’t we little guy?” she said.

When she looked back at the man in front of her, he was staring at the child, bringing his newly freed hand up to rub the child’s ear in a very soothing, paternal way.

She felt her heart squeeze.

Mando moved his gaze back to her and said softly, “I didn’t mean to make either of you worry, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry, not after you killed that menace. Just tell me you won’t get swallowed by another Krayt dragon anytime soon?” she smiled at him.

He actually let out a small laugh, “Well I definitely don’t plan on it.” He said.

They both twisted around and looked at the commotion behind him, the sand people were already elbow deep in krayt guts, quickly cutting away meat and other steaming bits of the beast. Mando started guiding her back towards the speeder, once they arrived, a raider came forward and offered a huge chuck of the meat to Mando. He wrapped it in a blanket and strapped it to the other side of the back of the speeder. Kat sat on the seat, nerves finally calm, and holding the sleeping child to her chest. How he managed to nod off in the middle of all this commotion she’d never know.

Cobb finally made his way over to them, after talking to the gathered townsfolk. Probably telling them to rally and meet him at the entrance to the small canyon so they can head back to town.

“Sorry, I didn’t have time to explain.” Mando started, as Cobb placed the armor down on the speeder seat beside her, handing it over graciously.

“No need,” Vanth replied, “It was well earned.” Holding his hand out for Mando to shake.

“My pleasure.” Mando said.

“I hope our paths cross again.” Cobb said in parting. At his words, Katlin’s heart sunk.

_Right. I suppose the task is done now. Time to say goodbye._

Why did the thought of saying goodbye to the Mandalorian and his little green child make her so kriffing sad?

“As do I.” Mando responded.

“Oh, and you tell your people I’m not the one who broke that.” Vanth snarked, and then looked at her, “We’re gonna head back to Mos Pelgo in a few.” He gave her a knowing look, meaning to give her time to say goodbye. Anyone with eyes could see that she’d grown quite attached to both the man and baby in the short amount of time. He turned and walked off, waiting for her by his speeder that he had moved over to the entrance leading out of the cavern.

She stood from Mando’s speeder and turned towards him, she walked around to his side and gently pried the still sleeping child from her person, slowly dislodging his little hand from her bandana. She leaned over and placed him into his carrier, cocooning him in the little blanket inside. She leaned over and kissed his little fuzzy head.

“You be good for your dad.” She whispered. She stood up straight and turned slightly to the Mandalorian, looking up to find him already gazing at her. She slid her thumb through her belt loop, and slightly bit the inside of her cheek.

_Don’t get emotional. Don’t get emotional._

“Well, I suppose this is where I say goodbye.” She said softly.

He just looked at her for a beat, not saying anything. She was about to turn and walk away when he finally replied.

“You know,” he started slowly, “The kid really seems to like you. Trusts you. And I wouldn’t mind having some help with him.” He continued, “Maybe even some back up when I’m on a job or two…”

She cocked a hip and crossed her arms, quirked an eyebrow, and tried not to smile like an idiot at what he was implying.

When she didn’t say anything, he tilted his helmet at her again, and went on, “I would be willing to pay you a percentage of any job I take on, that is if you want to come with us. I know you have your bar, and you seem close to the people in your town.”

She thought for a minute and then sighed, “…I think maybe it’s time…for a new adventure.” She let a small smirk break through, “that is if you _really_ mean it.”

“I wouldn’t have offered if I didn’t.” he stated.

“Then yes, I’ll come with you.” She replied.

“I was going to head straight back to my ship in Mos Eisley, but if you need to grab some things, we can head back to Mos Pelgo.”

“If you wouldn’t mind too much, that would be great. I don’t need to grab a lot, but there’s a few things I’d like to bring with me.” She said.

He just nodded his head and motioned for her to hop on. Once she did, he sat in front of her, turning on the speeder.

“I’ll need to let Cobb know what’s up.”

He steered the speeder towards Vanth, stopping as they got close. Vanth looked at Mando, and then her with a knowing smile on his face.

“I figured you’d end up going with him.”

She stuck her tongue out at him, “Yeah, but I need to grab some things first, so we will make the trek back to Mos Pelgo first.”

“Well, ya’ll don’t have to snail trail it back with everyone else, most are walking, and even though I have a speeder I’m going to guide them back safely.” Cobb said. Mando turned his head to the side, addressing her, “The sooner we get back to my ship the better.” She nodded at him and hopped off the bike, walking the few steps to Vanth.

“Take good care of my cantina, old man.” She quipped and smiled at him.

“Oh, I’m sure it’ll still be standing, if you ever come back, or to visit.” He said, “What about your place?”

“I’d like to keep it, nice to always know there’s a place to come back too,” she said, and then leaned a bit forward, “whether its alone, or with company.” She whispered and shot a sly smirk his way.

He laughed, “Okay, no problem. Ill check on it from time to time.”

“Thanks, Cobb…for everything.” She whispered, tearing up once again. Too many times in one day for her liking. She engulfed the older man in a tight hug.

“You take care of yourself Kat.” He said softly, “And you better come visit every once in a while. You’re family after-all.”

“I will,” she replied just as softly, “On both accounts, I promise.”

She broke away and got back on the bike, securing her arms around Mando. Cobb sent a pointed look towards the Mandalorian.

“You take good care of her now.” He said seriously, “And if she wants to come home, even just to visit, you better bring her home.” Almost a threat.

Mando nodded, “I will, you have my word.” A vow.

And then they were off, she pulled her bandana back up over her nose as they sped through the desert towards Mos Pelgo.


	4. Chapter 4

They had made it back to the dusty little town in what seemed like record time. She guided him towards her humble abode, the one that she inherited after both of her parents passed. It was actually a good size for the tiny town of Mos Pelgo. The speeder pulled up to a three domed desert-style hut.

Kat slid off the speeder first, reaching down and grabbing the baby out of his carrier. She unlocked the door and flicked the lights on. She looked back to face Mando who was still sitting on the bike.

“You’re welcome to come in.” she said.

Walking through the threshold, she set the baby down so he could explore while she walked to her room to grab a pack. She filled it with a few sets of traveling clothes, along with undergarments and sleep clothes. She walked over to her bedside table and grabbed the vibro-blade she had hidden there and slid it into her boot. She found the hidden compartment she had cut into the wall and grabbed the sizeable pouch of credits she had hidden away. She grabbed her favorite throw blanket and shoved it into her bag as well. She took one final look at her room and then walked out.

As she walked through the common area, she glanced over to check on the child, who was pre-occupying himself. Mando had finally decided to come inside, standing a bit awkwardly between the door and the center of the room. He was still covered in Krayt slime and the shit was potent. As a matter of fact, glancing down, she also had some on her person from the hug and the ride back. She hesitated, not sure whether she should mention it and then ducked into the spare room, her parents’ old room. She opened the top drawer of the small dresser and grabbed a pair of her father’s old black sweatpants and a soft, cream colored, long sleeve tunic. She re-entered the room, facing Mando once again.

“So…we both kind of stink,” she gestures to her soiled clothes, “If you want, you can use the fresher while I finish packing up.” She stated. “I have a sonic cycler in the kitchen as well so I could throw your flight suit in…you could just leave it outside the door…” She slowly placed the fresh clothes on the small kitchen table against the nearby wall.

He didn’t make a move or say anything so she continued, she cleared her throat awkwardly, “You…don’t have too, just thought I’d offer. It’s kind of a tight fit, so you might want to strip the armor out here.”

Mando’s helmet quickly jolted over, looking right at her. Her first thought was that maybe he didn’t trust her…

“I promise you’ll have privacy…and your armor is safe with me.” She looked re-assuringly into his visor.

There was an uncomfortable few seconds of silence until Kat ducked back into her room, pretending like she was looking for a few possessions. After about 5 minutes, she walked back into the common area, she immediately noticed Mando wasn’t there, and then she heard movement behind the closed door of her fresher. His flight suit laying on the floor outside the door. Her eyes darted over to the table where he had taken the proffered clothes and neatly piled his soiled armor, sans the helmet of course. She couldn’t help the small smile on her lips, realizing that he must trust her at least a little.

She changed into a fresh pair of black pants and a light grey, long sleeve. She gathered their clothes and threw them in her sonic washer next to the conservator in the kitchen. After quickly but thoroughly wiping his armor clean, she sat watching the child until she heard the fresher door slide open, looking up at the Mandalorian as soon as he stepped forward. It was a bit weird seeing him in her father’s old clothes and not in his armor, but she couldn’t deny that the comfy, relaxed style looked good on him.

She jumped up and sped passed him into the fresher, hoping he didn’t notice her ogling. She washed her hands and splashed water on her face to freshen up. After a few minutes of gathering and stuffing necessities into a small toiletry bag, she walked out and shoved it into her pack.

She heard a small beep, signaling that the clothes cycle was done, she turned to walk into the kitchen area and noticed Mando was casually leaning back in her kitchen chair, legs slightly spread and seemingly, completely at ease. As she passed by him, he looked up at her.

“Thank you…for cleaning my armor.” It was almost a whisper.

She smiled at him shyly, feeling her face heat up a bit. “It was no problem Mando.” She replied. “Cycle is done, once your re-armored we should be good to go. Feel free to keep those.” She motioned towards what he was wearing.

Shortly after he had re-dressed, flight suit and armor back on its rightful owner, and one last glance around her place, she was locking it up and they were back to speeding across the sandy desert.

* * *

Before she could even register what was happening, Kat found herself face first on the ground with a mouth full of sand. Pain rocked through her entire body, she forced herself to her hands and knees, and let out a small but sharp yelp.

_Yep, definitely have a few bruised ribs._

It took a solid thirty seconds for her head to stop spinning. She heard the faint sounds of weapons pinging off rock and metal not far from her. When her vision finally cleared, she saw Mando in hand-to-hand combat with three men. She finally stumbled to her feet.

_Where’s the kid?!_

She whipped her head around frantically looking for the little green bean. As her eyes landed on him, she saw a Jawa grabbing him and pulling him up by his little tan robes. Faster than lightning, she whipped out her blaster. Pointing it at the Jawa just as he placed a blade against the child’s throat.

“Let him go!” she yelled.

Mando had just knocked out his two assailants at that exact moment and turned his attention to the heart stopping sight.

In Jawa-ese, the little gremlin started making demands. “Stop.” He barked, “Don’t move any further.”

Mando urged him to wait, that there was plenty of salvage from the speeder wreck. The piece of bantha crap could have whatever he wanted. She would be lying if she didn’t get a little turned on when Mando said that if the Jawa hurt the child in anyway, there wouldn’t be anywhere he could hide from his wrath. Without even looking her way, he shot a handout and motioned for her to lower her weapon. She trusted that he knew what he was doing and complied.

A bright red surge of anger shot through her when the Jawa demanded Mando’s jetpack as payment for the child’s life. Firstly, because there was no item in existence that would equal the value of the baby’s well-being, and secondly that jetpack was made of beskar, it belonged with Mando. But he didn’t hesitate, he reached behind him and detached the item, slowly placing it on the ground between them. The Jawa tentively moved forward, placed the child down and grabbed the pack. He bolted off and the baby wasted no time running to his father. She raced over, her heart pounding, and immediately placed a hand on the child’s head, looking him over for any injuries. Once satisfied that the child was okay, she then looked over the Mandalorian, checking on him just the same and then meeting his helmet.

“Are you okay?” He asked her.

“I’m fine.” She breathed, “You?”

“You’re bleeding.” He answered, ignoring her question altogether. He ticked his head up to indicate to the blood that was coming from her head. She reached up and felt her forehead right above her temple and hissed when she touched the wound. Warm blood coating her fingertips.

_Ah, yep. Must’ve hit a rock or something._

“It’s nothing, I’m fine.” She assured him.

After a small moment of consideration, Mando turned towards the fleeing thief and hit a button on his vambrace. She watched in amusement as the Jawa flew up into the air and Mando’s jetpack slowly landed back on the ground. When the gremlin hit the ground with a thud, she couldn’t help but let out a small laugh.

_Serves him right._

They gathered their scattered belongings and began their walk back to Mos Eisley. They made it over half-way before the hijacking, so she estimated they would make it to the hangar just as the sun was setting. Her battered body screaming at her, her ribs not making the walk any easier. They didn’t go straight to the hangar when they arrived, instead, Mando led her to a local cantina. Much larger than her’s back in Mos Pelgo and filled with all walks of life.

He came to a stop in front of a back corner booth, a small mid-aged woman with wild hair only glancing at him, keeping her eyes on the sabacc game she was currently participating in.

“You finally found a Mandalorian and you killed ‘em?” She asked sarcastically.

“He wasn’t Mandalorian, I bought this armor off of him.” He responded.

“Bet that set ya back.”

“Killed the Krayt dragon for him.” Mando replied coolly.

“Oh, is _that_ all?” she quipped incredulously.

Kat snorted under the breath. She liked this lady.

“He was my last lead on another Mandalorian.”

The Ant creature playing against her started chittering across from her.

“Well you’re in luck, Dr. Mandible says he can connect you with someone who can help, you just have to cover his take this round.” The woman replied.

Kat rolled her eyes, noticing a shakedown when she saw one. She walked over to the bar and ordered a much needed and very refreshing snort of spotchka. It had been an incredibly long and very tiring day, the least she deserved was a drink.

Pretty soon, Mando was leading her towards the hanger, filling her in along the way. A contact would be meeting them there with the information he was looking for. He sounded extremely disgruntled, just as over the day as she was.

* * *

Katlin zoned out for most of the conversation, briefly tuning in when Peli started making croaking noises, apparently communicating with the frog lady in front of them. She zoned back out, exhaustion weighing down on her in a way she hadn’t felt in…well pretty much ever.

She briefly registered the frog lady brushing past her, up the ramp, and onto Mando’s ship. She re-joined the conversation in just enough time for Mando to say,

“And you’ve met the husband?”

“No, I just met her ten minutes before you walked in.” Peli casually said.

“I thought you said you _vouched_ for her on your life?!” Mando seethed seemingly at the end of his rope.

“What can I say I’m an excellent judge of character.” Peli brushed him off.

Kat barked out a laughed, shook her head, and started up the ramp.

* * *

The Razor Crest was beautiful and unique in its own way. Most would say antique, since it’s a pre-empire gunship, but Kat liked it. Small, but comfy, and well-cared for it seemed.

Mando took the child from her and disappeared up the ladder, guiding the Frog Lady to the cockpit. While he did that, Katlin decided to wander the ship. She had already found the fresher, a bit smaller than hers at her house, but practical for a gunship. There was a small kitchenette area across from the portside ramp entrance, in between what looked to be carbonite pods on the right side and a set of closed doors on the left.

There was a walkway leading to what she assumed was a rear exit ramp at the back of the ship, hard to see since there were no lights currently illuminating the way. Some storage crates of different shapes and sizes pushed against the walls as she walked towards the dark area. The only source of light coming from the small glowing intubation pod full of the Frog Lady’s eggs.

Mando walked up behind her, as she turned to face the front of the aircraft again.

“I like your ship Mando.” She smiled, “She’s got character.”

“She gets the job done.” He said, as he pressed a button on his vambrace, turning the rear interior lights on so she could she better. There was a door she didn’t notice before a few feet to the right of the carbonite pods and about half-way to the back ramp. He hit a pad on the wall, opening the door to reveal a small room. It had a single bunk built into the wall and a narrow walking space from one side of the room to the other. Across from the bunk area was a small built in wall cubby with a shelf.

“This’ll be your room.” He stated, “I’ll let you get settled, we’ll be taking off soon.”

She nodded to him and walked into her new space. Much smaller than what she was used too, but she couldn’t help but feel content and cozy here. She was excited for this new chapter. She took a minute to take in the space, and unpacked her throw blanket, tucking it around her bunk. She set her bag down, deciding she would unpack what she’d brought with her later.

Walking back out of the room and shutting the door behind her, she started making her way towards the ladder, which she assumed led up to the cockpit. She thought Mando would already be up there, so she was slightly surprised when she found him leaning against the kitchenette seemingly waiting for her. Once he saw her, he stepped forward and handed her a…chill pac?

She took it and then looked up at him. He tilted his helmet, as if to admonish her, and said, “Don’t think I didn’t notice your discomfort on the walk back…I’d wager if you lifted the side of your shirt, I’d see bruised ribs, right?”

She blushed slightly, “Uh…yeah…” she replied sheepishly. She thought she had done a pretty good job at not making it obvious.

He sighed, “I think there’s some pain pills in the med-pac under the sink if you need them.”

“Oh no,” she waved him off, “this should be fine, I’ve experienced worse, I assure you.”

Mando regarded her silently for a few seconds and then motioned with his helmet towards the ladder. “Head up and strap in.”

By the time she reached the ladder, she heard the portside ramp closing. Then boots behind her and suddenly the doors adjacent to the ladder opened with a hiss. She half-turned, curiosity winning her over. Her eyes widened at the sight before her, Mando stepped up and stowed his pulse rifle. Kat let out a low whistle, “Well kriff Mando, that’s a nice little arsenal of weapons you have there.” She stepped up next to him, gazing at everything like a kid in a candy store.

His helmet turned her way and she could just hear the amusement in his voice, there was no mistaking it, “Weapons _are_ a part of my religion after-all.” She smirked at him and then her heart just about stopped when one blaster in particular caught her eye. She reached forward and lightly brushed her hand over an absolutely _beautiful_ black and bronze modified DE-10 blaster pistol.

“I’m pretty sure I just fell in love Mando.” She whispered a little breathlessly. She was completely oblivious to him watching her intensely. His heart was almost beating through his beskar chest-plate.

“When we have some down time, I’ll let you shoot it.” He replied.

Her hand dropped and she turned to him, flashing a smile at him again.

“You are quickly becoming my favorite person.” She said, while turning back to the ladder. She heard the hiss and clink of the weapons locker shutting behind her.

She made her way up, a bit…gingerly, but pushing through as to not hold up Mando, who was no doubt right behind her. Once her feet hit the landing, she saw an open door on her right, another small room, with what looked to be a slightly bigger size bunk. She noticed a small hammock tied in a corner; the baby snuggled inside, probably Mando’s quarters she guessed. The door to her left was open, showing her the cockpit, Frog Lady was already strapped into the right passenger seat, leaving her the left.

She strapped in quietly and looked over to the lady across from her, flashing her a small smile. She leaned over slightly and lifted her shirt to place the chill pac against her tender ribs. She glanced back to see Mando checking one more time on the kid and then shutting the door. He brushed by, making his way to the pilot’s seat. Katlin couldn’t help but watch intently as his hands glided over buttons and switches with practiced ease. He was clearly a veteran at flying. Before she knew it, they were lifting up from the dock and taking off through the sky. She relaxed into her seat and watched as the planet shrunk behind them as they hit the stars.


	5. Chapter 5

At some point she had fallen asleep. She wasn’t very surprised to be honest, the last few days had been packed full of excitement. She was jolted awake by a beeping coming from the control panel. Mando flicked a switch and she heard a voice hailing them.

“Razor Crest, this is N1-11, come in Razor Crest, do you copy?” Katlin looked from Mando to the window as she saw two X-Wings fly up next to them, one on each side.

“This is Razor Crest, is there a problem?” Mando replied begrudgingly.

“We noticed your transponder is not emitting.” The fighter pilot stated.

“I’m pre-empire surplus, I’m not required to run a beacon.”

“That was before,” the voice responded quickly, “This sector is under New Republic jurisdiction. Now, all spacecraft are required to run a beacon.”

“Thanks for letting me know, I’ll get right on it.” Mando said. She was watching him closely, not sure what was going on, but she did notice that he seemed suddenly tense for some reason.

“Not a problem, safe travels.” She heard through the comm.

“May the Force be with you.” She raised her eyebrows at Mando’s reply.

“And also with you.” Kat eased back into her seat; the situation seemingly handled. She closed her eyes, hoping to drift back to sleep.

“Just one more thing.” N1-11 said. Her eyes flashed open, immediately locking on the man in front of her. “I need you to send us a ping, we are sweeping for Imperial holdouts.”

“I’ll let you know if I see any.” Mando cheekily replied, but the X-Wing pilot insisted on the ping. Not relenting, even when Mando said he didn’t have the hardware online.

“It doesn’t seem to be working.” Mando said, without even moving towards any of the many switches on the control board. Kat slowly sat forward a bit in her chair, getting a bad vibe from this whole ordeal.

After the fighter pilot told Mando he would have to follow them back to base so they could confirm they weren’t Imperial, he started fidgeting and then finally hit a switch to transmit their ping. Katlin narrowed her eyes at the Mandalorian, wondering why he was so against just doing that in the first place. The sound caused Frog Lady to jolt awake and she immediately started croaking, clearly distressed. Mando quickly turned his head and urged her to be quiet; giving the N1-11 pilot a flimsy answer when he asked what the sound was.

There was an awkward and very tense beat of silence, and then all of a sudden, she heard the starfighters wings extending. Her head flew to the left, her eyes widening.

_What the hell was going on?!_

“Was your spacecraft in the vicinity of New Republic correctional transport Vulcan Five?” The fighter pilot questioned sternly.

_A correctional transport? Like…prisoners of the New Republic?!_

Her head swiveled towards the man in front of her, “Mando, _what_ the hell is he…”

And before she could even finish her questioning, his hand slammed the throttle forward and they were flying down towards a nearby planet. The Frog Lady let out a startled yell and Kat flew back into her seat, her hands both clenching down on the armrests.

They broke atmo and were soon flying through puffy clouds, the planets sun peaking over the tops. If her heart wasn’t about to burst through her chest, she might’ve enjoyed the view. Warnings were coming in from both X-Wing pilots. Warnings for the Razor Crest to stand down, that they would fire if he didn’t stop running.

She didn’t know much about the Razor Crest’s capabilities, but she did know about X-Wings from her father. She wasn’t confident in the Razor Crest being able to outrun the starfighters. Then Mando was breaking left, sharply, suddenly pulling back on the throttle and completely killing the engines. The gunship started free falling backwards, her stomach dropping with it.

“For the love of…” she trailed off, her throat closing up on her. They twisted around suddenly, giving her a face forward view of the very quickly approaching ground. Frog Lady was absolutely losing her shit to her right, Mando was calm as a kriffing cucumber it seemed, and she was planting her feet and clenching her jaw to refrain from letting out an ungodly amount of expletives.

They flew into a narrow crevice, the X-Wings right behind them, and then just as they were getting a final warning from the starfighters, Mando dipped the ship down to the right, flying them through a small opening.

“Hold on.” He said over his shoulder.

“For dear life.” She responded dryly. She braced herself for what was surely to be a rough landing as he guided them towards what looked to be an icy overhang. She guessed he planned to use it as a hiding spot.

_A rough landing indeed._

They hit the surface, hard, and came skidding to a stop, the force of impact throwing her against the seat straps. She let out a groan as her ribs screamed at her. She assumed the X-Wings flew right passed them considering she heard nothing but silence.

Kat couldn’t help but let out a sharp and breathless laugh after all that.

“Those were some risky moves, flyboy.” Using the nickname her mother used to use on her dad.

Mando looked back to check on her, and that’s when she remembered the baby. She gasped, her eyes flying wide, and her hands flew to the buckle release.

“The baby!” she exclaimed as she shot from her seat. She turned to rush out of the cockpit but before she could even take two steps the Razor Crest jolted, a loud creaking sound bellowing around them. The ice was beginning to crack beneath them.

It all happened so fast, she couldn’t brace herself or grab onto anything, but then the ice gave way, and they were plummeting down, down, down. She lost her footing and went falling backwards, she thinks she saw Mando try to reach for her but then her head smacked off the console and everything went black.

* * *

When Mando came to, he couldn’t tell how long he’d been unconscious. He lifted his head and pried his arm off the controls. He paused shortly, realizing that everything was starting to be covered in a thin layer of ice. The cockpit was _cold_. Even for him in all his layers and armor.

Everything came rushing back to him then, with a start he turned to his left and glanced down. Kat was lying on the floor with a small line of blood trailing down from her hairline. That’s right, she hit her fucking head off the console! He jumped out of the seat and crouched over her, “Kat…Katlin!” he said, trying to nudge her awake. His hand met her throat trying to check for a pulse while his heart beat rapidly in his chest. He let out a breath of relief when he confirmed she was still alive, just out cold. And cold she was, way too damn cold.

He got up and twisted around, noticing his other passenger who had been knocked out of her seat on impact. Frog Lady didn’t seem to have any injuries though, unlike Kat and as he was leaning down to check on her, her eyes opened. He helped her back up into her chair, as she started to croak on and on. Probably about her eggs. He assured her he would check on them and then walked to his quarters to check on his kid. Except…he wasn’t there. He quickly grabbed a thin blanket and one of his extra cloaks. He made his way back into the cockpit, handing the blanket to Frog Lady and then crouching back over Katlin, wrapping his cloak around her snugly.

He slid down the ladder to the hull, turning and taking in the extensive damage. There were cables protruding from the ceiling, crates tossed about every which way, and a fairly large hole had been punched through the side of the Crest. Snow was blowing in and everything had an icy sheen to it.

“ _Damnit.”_ He spat. He rushed forward, hopping over crates, frantically looking for the child. And then he heard it, a slurping sound and a small “coo”, he saw movement from under a fallen tarp. Reaching over and pulling it back, he revealed the kid, _eating the eggs._

“NO! Don’t do that!” he admonished, quickly latching the lid back on the pod and picking it up out of the child’s reach.

* * *

Kat woke up to Frog Lady croaking loudly beside her. She sat up slowly with a pained groan, holding her pounding head with one hand, and her ribs with another. Her vision was a bit blurry at first, but once it cleared, she noticed she had been covered with…a blanket? No, a cloak. Mando’s cloak?

Then everything hit her at once. The X-Wings, the chase, the landing, and then…oh yeah, she hit her head. No wonder it was pounding so bad. She pulled her hand away from her temple, noticing a bit of coagulated blood on her fingertips.

She stood up unsteadily, as she heard, “Found them!” coming up from below.

_Kriff it’s cold in here._

She spun the cloak around her, fastening it around her neck like it was designed to do and clutched it around her shaking form. She could see her breath puffing out in front of her. As she walked past Frog Lady, she reached out and squeezed her arm, hopefully portraying a sense of calm to the poor shaken female.

She made her way down the ladder, by passing the last three steps and hopping to the floor below. She quickly wrapped the cloak around herself again as she was hit with a gust of cold air. She turned, taking in the state of the Crest, immediately noticing the hole punched through the side.

“Shit…” she whispered.

_That explains the extreme cold._

“You’re awake.” A voice rasped. Her eyes flicked over, chasing the voice, meeting Mando’s form a few paces in front of her. He seemed to be in one piece, and he was holding the baby, who also seemed to be safe and sound. She had yet to respond to him or move from her spot by the ladder, still a bit slow on the uptake.

“Kat?” he questioned softly. Her head was fucking pounding, she clenched her eyes shut for a second, like that would do anything to help the pain. When she re-opened them, Mando had closed the distance between them.

“Hey,” he whispered to her, “You okay?”

“Yeah, I’m…” she rasped, she cleared her throat and tried again, “Yeah, I’m okay.” She answered more firmly. “What about you? And the baby?” She reached a hand forward, letting go of one side of the cloak, she stroked the baby’s ear.

“We’re fine.” Mando replied. “The ship, not so much.”

She moved passed him, walking forward and looking around at the damage. He followed closely behind her. “I can see that.” She whispered back, “What the hell do we do now?”

She heard the Frog Lady making her way down the ladder behind them. “Well, we’re in a tight spot.” Mando responded as he reached over to mess with some cables, “The main power drive isn’t responding, and the hull has lost its integrity. The temperature is only going to continue to drop as night falls. I’ll have a better idea as to our options at that time.” He let out a deep sigh, “We should try to eat something, and then get some sleep.”

Once they straightened some of the crates out of the way, Mando handed her some ration packets. She propped the child up on a crate and started feeding him, she then opened her own and ate only about half, her stomach rolling as soon as she popped a piece in her mouth. She handed the baby the remainder of her food, when she looked over, Mando had sat down against the wall and he was watching them. He no doubt noticed her hardly eat anything.

“You sure you’re okay?” He asked with a hint of concern in his voice.

“Yeah, just a bit nauseas,” she said, “probably from the hit to my head…again.” She thought briefly about the hit she took during that speeder crash just the day before back on Tatooine.

Mando hummed, “You probably have a concussion.”

“Probably.” She answered as she grabbed the baby and made her way over to him. She sat down next to him with barely a foot of space between them, she tucked the baby between Mando’s left leg and her right. She spread the cloak out to keep them as warm as possible given the circumstances. “I’ll try to stay awake for a while.” She quietly said.

Frog Lady started croaking frantically at them. Kat felt a little bad, she didn’t know the language and knew that Mando didn’t either, so there was no way for them to communicate with her.

“I don’t speak frog, lady.” Mando stated bluntly. Kat elbowed him gently in the side and shot him a look. He sighed, “Whatever it is, can wait until morning, I recommend getting some sleep.” And then he crossed his arms and relaxed against the wall.

Kat watched as Frog Lady paced around, letting out small little distressed croaks here and there. Her heart truly went out to her, Mando had agreed to safe passage to Trask, and now they were ship-wrecked on a freezing ball of ice.

Katlin looked down to check on the child and smiled softly when she saw that he had snuggled up against Mando’s leg, his little claw gripping the material of his pantleg. Without moving her head, her gaze traveled up to the man beside her. His breathing had slowed and evened out, so she assumed he had already nodded off. She inched a bit closer to his warmth. For survival purposes of course.

* * *

She was startled awake by a loud, machine-like voice. Before she could react, Mando had whipped his blaster out of its holster and pointed it at the culprit in front of them. It appeared that he had been startled awake as well, his shoulder jostling her a bit with his quick movement. And that’s when she realized that she had curled into him while she slept, he had also leaned a bit into her as well, seeing as he was leaning slightly to the left. The baby was still tucked snugly between them and she had wrapped her left hand around Mando’s left arm at some point during their slumber.

_I’ll just slowly remove my hand now._

She looked up at a black, ant-like droid, which was where the voice had come from. It was strapped to the wall, half destroyed with wires jutting out all over the place. She followed a cord over to where Frog Lady was. She explained that she was using the droids vocabulator to communicate with them, and that she needed them to wake up. A genius idea, one had to admit.

Mando was not impressed.

“What the hell are you doing?” He seethed, he holstered his blaster and pointed at her, “that droid is a killer.”

“Um what?” Kat said to no one in particular. Why was it on his ship then?

Frog Lady ignored them and continued on, “These eggs are the last in my life cycle, my husband risked his life to carve out an existence for us on the only planet hospitable to our species. We have fought too hard and suffered too much to resign ourselves to extinction. I must demand that you hold true to the deal you agreed too.”

Kat stayed silent on this one, shifting her eyes to Mando.

“Look lady, the deal is off.” He said, “We’ll be lucky if we get off this frozen tomb with our lives.” He sounded defeated.

“I thought honoring one’s word was part of the Mandalorian code…” Frog Lady started, “but I guess those are just stories for children.” A hot surge of anger lit up Kat’s spine. She knew he didn’t need her to defend him, but she couldn’t seem to help herself.

Kat sat up abruptly, “Hey!” she yelled, “How _dare_ you use that against him?! It’s not like he _planned_ for this to happen. You…”

Mando stopped her with a gentle hand to her wrist. She looked over to him, fire still burning in her eyes. She took a deep breath to calm herself and then the baby let out a sad squeak. Mando looked from her, down to the baby and sighed. He grabbed the child and placed him in her lap, jumping up and snatching his toolbox off the ground, making his way out through the hole in the wall.

* * *

He had been out there for quite some time, alone and probably freezing despite his layers. She was concerned to say the least. She had spent the time cleaning up the inside of the hull, she knew that there was no way Mando was going to be able to fix the gaping hole in the wall, so she was strapping everything down the best she could. Moving the smaller crates and items into her room and sealing the door.

After she had done what she could and there was still no sign of the Mandalorian, she decided enough was enough. He at least needed to take a break to warm up his extremities. She scooped the child up and walked outside. The sight almost took her breath away. If it wasn’t for their current predicament, she might’ve been able to appreciate the beauty of it all. Despite the cold, the snowy landscape and beautiful blue walls of ice was quite the sight to see. She looked from side to side, with no sign of the man, so she made her way around the wrecked ship.

And there he was, kneeling down in the snow with a welder in his hand. She gave the Crest a quick once over and just couldn’t picture how he was going to fix this mess. She set the wiggling child down and walked over to him. He looked up at her, “You should take the kid and go back inside where its warmer.”

“And you should take a break, you’ve probably lost feeling in your hands at this point, right?” she admonished him, standing with her hands on her hips. He tilted his helmet to the side, probably about to argue with her, but then he looked passed her.

“Hey, kid.” He said, getting to his feet. She twisted around and saw the ends of a little tan robe disappearing behind the other side of the ship. She and Mando both rushed to follow him.

“Kiddo, where do you think you’re going?” she called to him.

“Come back here!” Mando ordered.

When they caught up to him, he was staring out at an opening in the distance. Mando kneeled beside him and followed his line of sight, noticing the footprints in the snow.

“When did she go?” he questioned the kid. Why, she didn’t know, the kid clearly couldn’t answer. Mando stood, picked up the child and started walking forward, following the tracks. She followed closely behind him, one hand resting, ready, on the handle of her blaster, the other still clutching the cloak around her.

They walked quite a ways through a cavern of ice until it opened out into a large cave like area. They found Frog Lady there, completely stripped down and floating in a hot spring, her eggs floating around her.

“There you are, you can’t leave the ship, it’s not safe out here.” Mando explained. He set the child down and started gathering the eggs, placing them back into the pod. Frog Lady started croaking again.

“I think she’s trying to keep them warm…” Kat said.

“I know, but night’s coming fast, and I can’t protect you all out here.” He responded, a hint of worry in his voice.

Kat looked at him as he said that, a warm feeling making its way through her chest. Frog Lady started to help him gather the eggs up, and the baby reached forward as well. Kat thought he was trying to help his father, but then Mando shot his hand out, wagging his finger back and forth.

“No! …no.” he berated the child. Her brows rose a bit at that, she felt like there was more to that story but didn’t comment. The child let out a small cry and then wandered off. Kat walked around to the other side of the pod and started helping to hurry the process along.

About a minute later, a distressed cry echoed off the icy walls. Both her and Mando whipped their heads over to where the child was running towards them as fast as his little legs could carry him. He was frantic. And then, she saw probably one of the worst sights she’s ever seen. Scratch that, it was _most definitely_ the worst thing she’s ever seen.

Spiders. Spiders bursting out of little cocoons. _EVERYWHERE._

Mando quickly jumped to his feet, assessing the situation as it unfolded. He snatched the baby up as he ran into his father’s leg. Mando stepped backwards, sealing the pod and throwing the strap around his shoulder. Frog Lady’s tongue shot out to her clothes on the ledge and she jumped out of the water, dressing quickly.

And Kat, well Kat was still bent down, one hand in the water, staring in pure horror as hundreds, no, had to be _thousands_ , of spiders ranging in all different sizes, came scurrying towards them. They heard a low growl, and…a loud stomping? And just as quick, the biggest fucking spider she’s ever seen crawled out of an opening in the wall.

The Queen Mother of all spiders. Mando spun around, waving his arm in the air, motioning them to move, “GO!” he yelled, “Go! Back to the ship!” She saw Frog Lady running out of her peripheral vision, but Kat was frozen in place. Just as the Queen let out a loud, menacing growl, Mando ran towards her, grabbing her arm roughly and hauling her to her feet.

“Run, Kat!” he pushed her forward, and that’s what it took for her to snap out of it. They both bolted forward, running fast through the cavern. She could hear the thousands of legs following behind them. She saw Frog Lady bust into a full-on fucking hop, all while her heart was practically beating through her chest.

_So, Kat may have a confession to make, she’s fucking **terrified** of spiders._

She could feel her throat constricting, her eyes welling up with tears. Then blaster shots flew passed her, taking out the spiders that had crawled around them to try and block their way.

_You have a blaster too, Kat. USE IT._

She reached down and grabbed her Deathhammer, clutching onto the handle harder than she ever had before. And then the Queen, tried to spray them with some fucking web.

Kat yelped. Actually yelped. Out loud.

And then she was taking off again, following behind Mando and the Frog Lady. Mando re-holstered his weapon and reached back, grabbing her arm and pulling her so she was beside him. They ran around a corner, just in time for a huge and very sharp leg to come bursting through the ceiling in front of them. Mando yanked her against his chest.

“Fuck!” she yelled. There was no way he didn’t feel her shaking uncontrollably.

Once the coast was clear, he pushed her forward again. As they ran, she could see the large shadow of the Queen scurrying over the ice above them. She heard a small beeping sound behind her, whipping her head back, she saw Mando was activating his Grav charges, tossing one to each side of the wall, then twisting and throwing one back towards the horde behind them. He turned back and placed his free hand on her lower back, urging her to run faster, the explosion from the charges rocking the cavern, sending chunks of ice flying everywhere. They both looked back as they heard a loud crashing sound to see the Queen lying motionless on the floor.

_Well, thank Kriff for that._

They continued to run, her lungs burning and her ribs screaming at her. Mando grabbed his blaster once again and started shooting spiders around them, making them burst into green goo. She finally gathered her wits enough to lift her blaster as well, shooting spiders of her own. They were forced to a stop as they were being quickly surrounded. She kept firing, some of her shots missing their mark due to her intense shaking. Her and Mando were back-to-back at this point, when she heard a high-pitched hissing sound. She glanced back just in time to see him activating his flame thrower, burning a large amount of the disgusting bugs to ash. And then they were off again, sprinting down the last stretch of the cavern. She could see the Crest up ahead. Mando was turning to shoot behind them as they reached the ship. He turned to her and shoved the baby into her arms.

“Go to the cockpit!” he ordered. Frog Lady had already rushed through the hole, and she stepped inside as well to make her way up the ladder. But then she realized Mando was still outside, shooting away. Trying to protect them. She couldn’t just _leave_ him out there alone. She was supposed to be his backup in situations like this right? She handed the baby off to the Frog Lady and told her to go to the cockpit.

She took one stuttering breath, grew some balls, and then stepped back through the breached wall, just behind Mando. She lined up shot after shot, green goo bursting all over the damn place. Mando glanced over to her quickly but kept blasting away. A larger spider shot a web out, sticking his blaster hand to the side of the Crest. Kat swung her blaster over and shot that spider right in the fucking face. Mando had a group of spiders quickly approaching to his right, she began blasting them to bits, while he tried to free his hand. She had turned her body slightly to shield him, knowing she was leaving her left side exposed. Her eyesight was also skewed in this position, which is why she didn’t see the spider soaring through the air towards her face. Mando’s hand shot up just in time to catch the arachnid, squeezing the life out of it, a burst of green liquid coating his hand.

_Okay, she had time to admire how smooth and hot that just was._

He threw the thing on the ground and ripped his hand from the side of the ship, just in time to push her back into the hull with a hand against her tummy. She took the sign and turned, sprinting to the cockpit, Mando hot on her heels. They both ran through the doorway, Mando turning and continuing to shoot, trying to close the door, but the sheer number of spiders was making it a bit difficult. A few spiders were able to jump through, Kat was taking quick aim with each one, shooting them down.

One spider had descended from the ceiling and landed on the baby’s head. He let out a small shriek. Kat didn’t want to risk using her blaster, and she didn’t hesitate as she lunged forward and snatched the spider from his head. She threw it to the ground and crushed it beneath her boot. Mando had turned back briefly when he heard the commotion, once he determined she had the situation handled, he turned back and fired his flame thrower again. He was clearly over this bullshit. It did the trick and the door slammed shut.

There was a beat of silence. No scrambling legs to be heard. She holstered her weapon, reaching down to pick-up the child. She rose just in time to hear legs clinking against the window. She stood slightly behind Mando’s shoulder looking at the spiders crawling all over the outside of the ship.

He rushed to the pilot’s seat, “Strap yourselves in!” he ordered. “This better work.” He mumbled as he started flipping switches, firing up the Crest. She planted herself in her seat, pulling the strap over her and the baby. Frog Lady was doing the same to her right.

“I’ve got limited visibility,” Mando said, “It’s going to be a bumpy ride.”

The Crest started to rise slowly, breaking out of the ice surrounding it. She saw spiders falling from the ship and she exhaled a breath she didn’t even realize she had been holding.

_Thank the stars above._

And then…something was slamming into them from above, sending the ship crashing back into the ground. They hit so hard it knocked the breath from her lungs. Sharp, claw like legs starting bursting through the glass on either sides of the window. One right in front of her, inches from her and the baby. She couldn’t help it. She let out a terrified scream and clutched the baby tight against her chest. She covered his head with her hands and curled her body over him. She realized she was crying.

She looked up in horror, to see the Queen staring right back at them. It reared back and opened its disgusting fanged mouth, slamming it down on the window, trying to get to them.

“Mando!” she cried. He reached back and grabbed onto her knee, trying to offer the little bit of comfort he could in that moment.

All of a sudden, there was a barrage of laser fire smacking into the beast above them. The sound of booming cannons blasting away. The Queen collapsed and slid off the front of the ship. Mando spun his chair around and leapt to his feet. Rushing through the door and down the ladder. The weapons fire changed to smaller, quieter bursts after the Queen went down. Whoever was out there was picking off the remaining babies. Kat sat in a state of shock for a solid minute before she was able to make herself move. She stood up and sat the baby on the seat.

“Stay here.” She whispered hoarsely.

She stumbled down the ladder and through the hull on shaky legs. She made it to the hole in the wall just as she heard a voice speaking, she stayed hidden.

“We ran the tabs on the Crest, you have an arrest warrant for the abduction of prisoner, X6-911.” His voice booming off the icy walls. Ah, it was N1-11. “However,” he continued, “security records show you apprehended three priority culprits from the wanted register. They also show you put your own life in harm’s way to try to protect the life of Lieutenant Davin of the New Republic correctional core. Is this true?”

“Am I under arrest?” she heard Mando ask.

“Technically you should be.” She inhaled, holding her breath, “but these are trying times.” She exhaled.

She zoned out of the rest of the convo, looking around her, seeing the massive amount of spider corpses and green guts splattered all around her. Her heart was still pounding uncontrollably, she felt like it was going to burst out of her chest. Her throat was still tight, her body still shaking. This has happened before, not to this level, but she knew she was having a panic attack.

She heard the thrusters of the X-Wings starting back up and retreating into the distance. She took this moment to step around the wall and out into the cavern. She almost walked right into one of the Queen’s legs hanging over the side of the ship. She inhaled sharply and jerked back. Mando turned and walked to her.

“Kat?” Her eyes flicked to him quickly, she was breathing hard. He was approaching her slowly, like she was a cornered animal. And she fucking hated it. Her eyes blurred again, fat tears racing down her cheeks when she blinked.

“Hey…” he whispered to her, brushing his hands up her arms. “It’s okay, you’re okay.”

She lifted her shaking hands to her face, wiping away the tears, she swallowed hard and took a gasping breath.

“I’m sorry…I’m sorry,” she repeated, “I promise I don’t react this way for anything else.” She rushed to explain.

He pulled her to him, wrapping his arms around her tightly. “Don’t. You don’t need to do that.” He said, “Don’t apologize.”

She let out a small sob, the last of the adrenaline and shock starting to leave her body. They stood in silence for a minute, her shaking slowly subsiding, with his arms still around her.

“Just breathe.” He softly spoke. She matched her breathing to his, calming down significantly. She pulled back from him, her arms still loosely around his waist, one of his hands came up to brush away her tear tracks. She closed her eyes at the feel of his glove against her skin.

“So…arachnophobia hmm?” he whispered, not judging her, simply wanting to confirm. She opened her eyes and met his through the visor. “Yeah, for as long as I can remember.” She replied.

He tilted his helmet in a small nod. And then his hand squeezed her arm. “I know how tiring panic attacks can be for a person. Not from personal experience, but I’ve witnessed them before. Why don’t you head inside and rest? I’ll finish up what repairs I can and then we will hopefully get off this miserable rock.”

She nodded back in confirmation, and he started to walk back to where he left his tools earlier. “Mando…” she called after him, he stopped and half turned towards her. “Thank you.” She shot him a small, tired smile, and then disappeared back into the ship.

* * *

He was right, panic attacks really do tire a person out. She had completely passed out in the cockpit. She didn’t know how long she had slept, when the sound of tools being packed up stirred her.

“Alright,” he sighed, “I repaired the cockpit enough for us to limp to Trask. There’s nothing I can do about the main hold, so we will have to get cozy in here. It’s the only thing I can pressurize, if you need to use the privy do it now. It’s gonna be a long ride.”

After quick bathroom breaks and Kat grabbing some snacks and drinks from the storage crates, they were all strapped in their seats once again.

“Okay, let’s see if we can get this thing in the air.” Mando said, sounding tired.

He fired up the engines and they slowly started to lift up, the remaining spider carcasses sliding off the ship. It was a shaky ascent and the ship had to break through a bit of ice, but they finally made it out of the cave and were soon flying away from the dreadful planet.

Once they were back in space, Mando broke the silence, “Wake me up if someone shoots at us…or that door gets sucked off its rails.”

Frog Lady let out a distressed croak. Kat huffed and used a foot to kick his chair. He turned his helmet towards her.

“Kidding.” He paused, “If that happened, we’d all be dead.” He finished flatly. “Sweet dreams” he quipped, leaning back in the chair to rest with the baby in his lap.

Kat shook her head and laughed; he was really in some type of mood, wasn’t he?

The baby turned to look at Frog Lady, and then twisted around to look at her. She peered back at him lazily and smiled fondly at the little cutie. Then, she saw him raise a little orange orb and suck it into his mouth.

Her eyes popped open and her jaw dropped, but she remained silent.

_He just ate…one of her eggs!_

Her eyes cut to the right, looking at Frog Lady, but it didn’t seem like she noticed. When Kat looked back towards the baby, he had already faced forward to nap with his dad.

She decided she didn’t have the energy to even contemplate what she just saw, so she simply closed her eyes and drifted off to dreamland.


	6. Chapter 6

You know, at this point Katlin would pretty much do anything to have a good night’s rest and wake up to a calm, serene ship. But alas, when she comes to once again, it is to an incessant beeping coming from the control panel. At some point during their rest and slow float through space, Mando must’ve placed the baby on her, because he’s drooling on her shirt and grasping a piece of her hair that had loosened from her braid.

When she stirs, he stirs, and so does Frog Lady beside her. Before she can inquire as to what the beeping is for Mando answers.

“Looks like we made it. Get ready for landing.” He flicks some switches and then smacks the console causing Kat to jump slightly.

“Dank Farrik. The landing array isn’t responding, without the guidance system, I’ll have to do a manual re-entry. Might be a little choppy.” He explains, “Once we’re through the atmosphere there should be just enough fuel to slow us down…if we don’t burn to a crisp.” He grumbled that last part under his breath, but Kat heard it.

“What?!” she sputtered incredulously while staring wide-eyed at the back of his helmet.

About 2.5 seconds later, they were dropping towards the planet, and they were dropping fast. So fast, that she could see flames licking up the sides of the window. It got increasingly hot in the cockpit, drops of condensation forming and dropping to the floor. She could see Mando struggling to keep the Crest under control.

“Come up here, I need your hands!” he exclaimed. She could hear the worry in his voice, this definitely wasn’t good. In a matter of seconds, she had unbuckled, plopped the kid down, re-buckled him and was standing next to Mando at the controls.

“This lever needs to stay back; can you do that?” He asked, talking loud over the groaning of the ship. She didn’t answer him, grabbing the lever and pulling it back. The lever didn’t want to budge, she planted one foot up against the bottom of the console, one slightly behind her to brace, and then put her body weight into it, pulling it back and holding with all her strength.

“Here we go.” He said. She glanced back to check on the baby, who looked like he was actually enjoying this. Frog Lady was watching with wide, scared eyes all while clutching onto her egg pod for dear life. Looking back out the window, she clenched her jaw tightly as she watched the surface get closer and closer. Gravity was pulling them down at an alarming rate, her stomach dropped, and her vision was starting to get a little spotty, but she continued to hold the lever back with all she had.

“Razor Crest, this is traffic flight control, please reduce your speed.” She could faintly hear a female voice speaking over the comm. They broke through the clouds and she could see the port below them.

“Engaging reverse thrusters.” Mando said, “Brace yourselves.” He hit another button on the panel, but they weren’t slowing down. Like, at all.

“Sweet kriffing stars…” Kat whispered through her clenched teeth as she continued to watch them plummet towards what seemed to be their end.

“Razor Crest you have to reduce speed…Razor Crest do you copy? ...Razor Crest!” the voice on the comm getting increasingly stressed. Mando must have had enough because he reached forward and slammed down a switch, cutting the voice off. The nav system locked onto the landing pad below them with a high- pitched beeping sound.

“Hold on…” he said un-assuredly, “Almost there…almost there.”

She watched with bated breath, only a short distance now, and then the Crest’s thrusters kicked in, and they slowed all at once. Sending her passengers jolting forward. They hovered over the pad for a few seconds, and Kat let out the breath she had been holding, assuming they would descend the last few feet and land smoothly.

Well, she was wrong. All of a sudden, the right engine blew, a loud explosion popping her right ear drum and then the ship was falling on its side into the sea. Kat was the only one not buckled into a seat, she lost her footing and went slamming sideways, hitting the corner of the control panel. She let out a loud cry of pain, as a sharp pain jolted up her right side like lightning.

_Forget bruised. Pretty sure that’s a now broken rib or two._

All they could do is wait as the port workers used a crane to hoist them out of the water. Kat was still crumpled over, her left arm crossed against her torso, and left hand gently sitting over her right ribcage, as if she could make the pain go away with the gesture. She took a few slow, painful breaths, her heart still hammering.

She cut her eyes towards Mando, “Things always this exciting with you?” she groaned.

“…Are you okay?” he asked, guilt heavy in the tone.

“Nope,” she said as her fingers prodded her side, trying to gauge the damage. She hissed as she hit a specific spot, “Yeah, definitely broken now.” Her head lolled to the side, hitting the metal wall with a thud, tears welling up in her eyes.

And then they were jolted up again, the ship raising up out of the water. She tumbled to her other side with the sudden movement, not able to react fast enough to brace herself. She landed with another thud on the floor of the Crest, curled around Mando’s seat.

“Son of a KRIFFING BANTHA.” She growled loudly. She was getting increasingly frustrated.

A few minutes later she was walking slowly and slightly hunched over off the landing pad, Mando in front of her, and baby in a floating pod to her side. Frog Lady was already quite a ways ahead of them, looking around excitedly for her husband. Mando was talking with the port attendant about repairs for the Crest, but the pulsating pain radiating through her right side and the ringing in her ears occupied most of her attention. She started walking ahead towards Frog Lady, watching as she continued to call out for her man.

Mando caught up beside her just in time, as an answering call sounded through the port. Frog Lady’s head swiveled and then she was running towards a Frog Man. Her heart warmed as she watched the couple embrace lovingly and fuss over their eggs. A small smile breaking its way through the pain for a minute. What could she say? She was a sucker for happy family reunions. It caused her to remember that feeling, the happiness her and her mother experienced every time her father returned home on leave.

She hummed, “Worth a few broken ribs and a busted ear drum if you ask me.” She said softly, and then started making her way towards the frog family before them. Once they got closer, Frog Man approached Mando, shaking his hand and croaking at him in appreciation and thanks, at least she assumed so. She couldn’t help but stare at Mando, and once again she was overcome with adoration for him. This man, this fearsome Mandalorian, had now done two good deeds to help people in need. Regardless of the fact that he was trying to find other Mando’s, she couldn’t help but think he was just a good man.

She was broken out of her trance when the others started forward, but Mando stood still for a moment, looking off into the distance. She turned her head in the same direction but didn’t see anything of particular interest. She turned back to him with a tilted eyebrow, “What’s wrong?” she questioned.

“Nothing…” he trailed off and then motioned with his helmet for her to follow. It was a short walk to the Inn. They bid farewell to the frog family and sat down at a table. Well, she very gingerly, sat down, making sure to hold in any sounds of pain. She knew Mando already felt responsible for her battered body and she didn’t want him feeling any more guilty. Unfortunately for her, he was extremely perceptive, and as soon as her ass hit the chair, he was looking straight at her.

“After I get the information I need, I’ll find a doctor.” He said softly, “Get you some bacta for those ribs.”

She sighed, “Mando, it’s not your fault.” He tensed a little, and she knew it was because she had pegged him right. Hitting right on the mark. “Really, it’s not like you planned for any of these things to happen. Besides, it’s not the first time I’ve been a bit banged up.” He tilted his helmet at her again, in question most like. She could tell he wanted to ask her about that last part, but before he could a waiter approached them.

“What can I get you?” asked the Mon Calamari.

“Two bowls of chowder for my friends.” Mando answered.

Kat held up her hand quickly, “None for me, but I will take the strongest drink you have.”

“These seats are scarce, everyone seated needs to eat.” The innkeeper snarked back. Kat was about to snark right back; she never did like when someone tried to strong-arm people for credits. Living half her life on Tatooine gave her a steel spine when it came to shit like that. Mando responded quickly before she got them kicked out of the place.

“I can buy something else.” He said, as he placed a generous amount of Calamari Flan on the table. “Information.” The waiter wasted no time snatching up the payment. Kat couldn’t help the disgusted snort and roll of her eyes. Seems there were greedy people on every planet in the galaxy.

“Have you seen others that look like me?” Mando asked.

The Mon Calamari reached up and pulled down a tube from the ceiling, he proceeded to fill the child’s bowl with chowder as he spoke, “Others with beskar have come through here, I know someone who might help.” He turned and walked to another table, talking to a Quarren briefly and pointing their way.

Kat watched the kid stare at his bowl of chowder, she thought she saw something move and furrowed her brow, but before she could investigate further Mando caught her attention.

“You okay?” he asked again. She assumed he was referring to her blatant dislike of the Mon Calamari waiter.

“Just don’t like when people try to squeeze people of their credits.” She answered, “the galaxy is a hard enough place to survive in without people like him.”

Suddenly, a small squid flew out of the bowl of chowder and attached itself to the kid’s face. Smooth as can be and without even looking over at the spectacle, Mando grabbed the blade from his belt and stabbed the creature. It slid back into the bowl, now dead, and an added treat for the kid.

“Don’t play with your food.” He scolded the child. Kat laughed, shaking her head in amusement.

By the time the Quarren approached their table, the innkeeper had swung back around and dropped her drink off. She took large sips as the men talked in front of her. The Quarren insisted he had indeed seen other Mandalorians and that he could take them to them.

“It’ll be a few hours sail. It’ll cost you though.” He chuckled lowly. Kat threw back the last bit of her drink, placing the glass down with an audible thunk and scowled at the Quarren. She just got a bad kriffing vibe from this dude.

* * *

They made a quick trip to a nearby Med station and purchased quite a few patches, grabbing as many as the doctor was willing to part with. With their track record so far, she had the feeling that they would need them in the future. She applied a few to her swollen and bruised sides. Her ribs would mostly have to do the work themselves, but the patches would help speed the process along, and the sticky gel on the adhesive side had a cooling, soothing effect.

Before long they were sailing through the sea, heading for a destination she couldn’t see in the distance. She questioned that fact for a bit, the man did say it would be a few hours sail. Maybe she was just being paranoid. She watched the deckhands and the captain intently as they worked with her back leaning against the boat railing. Mando was standing a few feet to her right side, staring out into the ocean, and the child was nestled in his pram in between the two of them.

The Quarren approached them before long, standing on the other side of Mando.

“Ever seen a Mamacore eat?” he drawled, “Quite the sight.” Mando turned his helmet to look at the man but didn’t respond. “Child might take an interest.” The man continued as he casually gazed towards the sea. “You should take a look” he insisted, and then motioned for them to follow him. Mando turned and walked forward, the child’s pod following him, it being linked to the motion of the Mandalorian’s vambrace.

Kat followed slowly behind; she just had this feeling in her gut that this dude was slimy. She wanted to just chalk it up to him being greedy for credits, but the feeling kept gnawing at her.

_Chill out. Mando is a professional bounty hunter. If something was off, surely he would be more on edge._

She watched as the man prepared a net of fish above the large opening in the center of the boat. He called for the hatch to be opened and then dropped the fish in. The water began bubbling as the sea creature made its way to the surface to feed.

“Must be hungry.” The Quarren stated, “Normally we feed her in the early morning but we…” he mumbled on and then suddenly he whipped his long fishing hook around and smacked the child’s pram hard, causing it to fly into the opening. Despite her earlier suspicions, she was still startled by the action.

Mando yelled an angry “NO!” before quickly closing the child’s pod, right as the Mamacore surfaced and swallowed it down. Mando wasted no time diving in after it. As soon as he did, the Quarren ordered the hatch closed. This all happened in the matter of two seconds, before she could even pull her blaster from its holster.

“The beskar is ours!” The Quarren laughed. She growled in disgust at his remark, as her fingers brushed the handle of her blaster.

A deckhand grabbed her arm and twisted it behind her back with a sharp yank. He went for her left one, but her fighting instincts kicked in and she ripped her arm forward before his grasping fingers could find purchase. Just as quickly, she flung her arm back, elbowing the man hard in the face. She heard a loud cracking sound at contact. _Good, I hope its fucking broken, you worthless Nerfherder._ The blow caused the man to let go of her right arm and she quickly twisted, and kneed the man in the groin, sending him falling over in pain.

She heard Mando struggling in the water below the caged hatch, trying to find a way out and gasping for breath.

“Mando!” she screamed “Hold on!” She once again went to grab her blaster. If she could aim a shot between the Quarren captain’s eye’s, she was sure he would call off his men and set Mando free. Most men usually caved when imminent death was threatened upon them.

But then another deckhand was coming at her from her left side. Out of her peripheral vision, she saw him throwing a punch aimed straight for her face. She ducked out of the way, turning as she went. She sprung back up and shot her left hand out, grabbing the man’s arm tightly to hold him in place. Then she brought her leg up and kicked him as hard as she could in his stomach, he flew backwards with a gasp, the wind knocked out of him.

But there were just too many of them, and with Mando trapped below, she was completely outnumbered. Hands wrapped around her wrists, folding her arms up, caging them tightly and painfully to her body. The man grappling her, lifted her off the ground and started to walk her back away from the hatch, out of the view of Mando. She watched in horror as some of the seamen took spears and stabbed them down into the water, trying to hit her man below.

“NO!” she yelled, kicking her legs and trying to fight her way out of his grasp. “MANDO!” she screamed. Red, hot, anger flowed through her blood. Angry tears starting to form in her eyes. He would die down there if she couldn’t break free and figure out a way for them to get out of this.

_He’s going to drown._

And then…

Three figures landed on the deck, planting their feet loudly, and she watched as they took out the captor’s one by one, with alarming speed. She felt the man holding her go limp, his arms falling away and then a thud as he fell back. Dead. There was a Mandalorian grasping her arm, her eyes followed his hand up to his helmet, and she almost missed it when he asked if she was okay.

She quickly nodded her head and then turned to watch as two females ended the fight. One ran over to a lever and opened the hatch. The other woman walked over and pulled Mando out of the water.

Kat could hear him coughing up water, still gasping for breath before he said,

“There’s a creature, it has the child.”

As Kat rushed to Mando’s side, one of the women dove into the water to search for the baby. As soon as she reached his side, she dropped to her knees, grabbing his arm with one hand and placing the other on his chest plate.

“Mando.” She whispered to him in concern.

His hand flew up and gripped her hip, “Are you okay?” he asked her.

“Me?! You almost kriffing drowned!” she barked at him.

Her head whipped towards the hatch opening when she started to hear the sounds of blaster fire and a loud beast-like cry. Then the female Mandalorian burst up out of the sea with the child’s pod in her arms. She landed in front of them and wasted no time ripping the dented door off the top.

Kat and Mando both audibly sighed in relief when the baby looked back at them with his big brown eyes. Completely unharmed. The woman picked up the child and Mando immediately reached out for him.

“Here you go little one.” She said as she handed him over to Mando, who cradled him to his chest. Kat leaned over Mando and brushed a hand over the child’s head.

“Thank you,” Mando breathed, looking up at the trio in front of them, “I’ve been searching more of our kind.”

“Well, lucky we found you first.” The woman in the middle stated. Kat assumed she was their leader, they all donned beskar armor, painted blue, but her helmet alone had an elaborate design on the face, painted in white.

“I’ve been quested to deliver this child to his kind, I was hoping that…” Mando started to explain but quickly halted his words as the Mandalorians in front of them all took their helmets off. He went completely silent and tense. Kat looked at him curiously, not sure of his reaction.

“Mando?” she questioned.

He quickly stood, “Where did you get that armor?” he asked aquisingly.

The red-headed leader looked at him, insulted, “This armor has been in my family for three generations.” She explained.

“You do not cover your face.” Mando said, “You are _not_ Mandalorian.”

_So that’s why he hasn’t taken his helmet off in front of her. He can’t…show his face to others?_

“He’s one of them.” the other male said.

“One of what?” Mando questioned.

The leader looked at him and sighed, “I am Bo-Katan, of clan Kryze. I was born on Mandalore and fought in the Purge. I am the last of my line.” She explained, “And _you_ , are a child of The Watch.”

“The Watch?” Mando sounded more confused as the conversation went on.

Kat felt completely out of place, like she shouldn’t be hovering in the background for a conversation like this.

The woman…Bo-Katan, went on to explain that Mando was part of a cult of religious zealots that had broken off from Mandalorian society, that they ultimate goal was to establish the ancient way. Whatever that meant. Kat only knew so much about Mandalorian culture and history, and this definitely wasn’t part of her history lesson.

“There is only _one_ Way.” Mando seethed, “The Way of the Mandalore.” And then he turned and walked quickly to her. He wrapped his arm tightly around her waist, the baby still cradled in his other arm, and he activated his jetpack. Surprised, she quickly wrapped her arms around his neck, holding on tight and he propelled them up into the air and flew back towards the port.

_It’s a good thing I’m not afraid of heights._

Before long, he landed them safely on a dock back on the port. He gently placed her down, his arm still lazily curled around her waist. When she pulled back from him, she gazed into his visor, and he looked back at her in silence.

She couldn’t begin to understand what he was feeling or thinking after the tense conversation back on the boat. He was just told that he was in a cult. That he was taught a different _Way_. That there were different Creeds, not just one. She knew he was angry, upset, conflicted. It wafted off of him in waves. She didn’t need to see his face to know it.

Her hands had slid down onto both of his shoulders, she brought her right hand to the cheeked indent of his helmet, “Mando…” she said softly. Before she could continue, there was an explosion in the distance. Her, Mando, and the baby watched the boat burning, black smoke billowing into the air. And then three figures flew off into the orange sunset.

* * *

The sun had set quickly, shrouding them in darkness as they walked along the docks of the port in silence. Mando still had yet to say a word since they flew off of that boat. She assumed they were heading to the Inn for lodging, she doubted the Crest would be ready just yet.

“Hey!” a gruff voice suddenly cut through the port. Quarren started emerging from behind crates all around them. One walking straight towards them.

“You killed my brother.” He spat at Mando.

Mando grabbed her wrist and pulled her slightly behind him. Her hand slowly started for her blaster, from her quick assessment, they only had fishing hooks and spears for weapons.

_Hadn’t anyone ever told them not to bring fishing hooks to a blaster fight?_

“Let us pass.” Mando said calmly, but in a tone she hadn’t heard before. It sent a slight chill through her. It was cold, deadly. He was clearly at his limit for the day.

The Quarren in front just laughed and stepped closer, “I don’t think you understand.” He said.

Just then, her and Mando both noticed a Quarren step out to their left. He was holding a blaster rifle. And then she heard another rifle primed to fire from their right.

_Well, kriff._

“You. Killed. My. Brother.” The Quarren spat. “Now, I’m gonna kill your pet.” Then his head turned to her, giving her a once over. He leered with lust in his eyes and smirked, “And before I kill your woman, I think I’ll have a little fun with her.”

Her eyes narrowed, shooting him a deadly glare. Mando’s hand tightened on her wrist at the man’s words.

Suddenly, Bo-Katan was landing next to her, the other two Mandalorians on the left of her and Mando.

“He didn’t kill your brother,” she instigated as she took a step forward, “I did.”

And then all five of them drew their blasters, Mando and the other male taking out the offenders in front of them, Bo-Katan shot to her right, Kat spun around and shot the three Quarren flanking them in quick succession, and the other female Mandalorian turned to their left. They made quick work of them all.

Kat turned back around just as Mando turned to check on her before looking at the other Mandalorians.

“Can we at least buy you a drink?” Bo-Katan asked, “We need to talk.”

* * *

As soon as they walked back into the inn, the trio of Mandalorians made their way to a back corner table, as Mando went to follow them, Kat grabbed his arm.

“Hey, I’m assuming we’re staying here for the night, so I’m going to check us into a room. The kid is starting to get grumpy.” She stated.

He nodded at her, “I’ll come find you after I hear what Bo-Katan has to say.” He started to reach for some credits to give her but she put her hand on his, stopping him.

“I’ve got it.” She said and quickly started towards the counter. She knew Mando would probably try to argue with her if she didn’t beeline it. She grimaced slightly, hoping the Mon Calamari waiter from earlier would be gone and she could speak with someone else. To her relief, she was met by a female Mon Calamari.

“Hello there, I’m Meena.” she greeted Kat with a smile, “How can I help you miss?”

Kat smiled politely, “Yes, I was hoping you have a room available for the night?” she asked.

“We only have one left,” the woman said, “We are a small Inn and this is a busy week on the port.”

“That’s fine, we’ll take it.” Kat responded.

“That’ll be 150 for the night.” Kat handed over the payment. “Down the hall, last room on the right, hun.”

“Thank you.” Kat said, she turned to leave but then she remembered something, quickly turning back to the innkeeper. “Would you mind sending two hot meals to the room in a bit?”

“Sure-thing sugar, you’re lucky I’m working tonight, I have something other than chowder available.” She winked at her and walked into a back room.

Kat followed the short hallway to the indicated door, she scanned the keycard, the door opened to a small but quaint room. But most importantly, clean, clearly taken care of by the woman at the counter. Kat walked in, quickly assessing the space. The first thing she noticed was that there was only one bed.

_Oh Stars._

She hadn’t even thought to ask, but seeing as it was the only room available, she wouldn’t have had a choice anyway. The bed was actually pretty large, definitely large enough to fit them both comfortably. She knew she would have no problem with it, but she didn’t know what Mando would say. There was a small table with two chairs and a door at the far end of the room, leading to a small refresher. And it had a shower.

Kat looked down at the child, noticing he was awfully quiet and hardly moving. Sure enough, the little cutie was already asleep. She walked over and snuggled him into the center of the bed. She turned and took off her boots, tucking them under one of the table chairs. She took off her jacket and hung it on the back of the chair. Next was her belt, with connected pouch and leg holster. Last was her bandana, she untied it and draped it over her jacket.

She stretched her arms up, popping her back and rolling her neck. Her ribs were still hurting, but the pain had lessened considerably from the bacta patches. She’d have to change them out after a nice, hot shower. Just as that thought entered her mind, she heard a small knock at the door. She walked over and hit the panel on the wall. Meena stood holding a tray with two bowls of what looked like a rich stew, that smelled absolutely amazing, a few rolls and a pitcher of water with two glasses.

“Thank you Meena, this smells amazing.” Kat said taking the tray.

“No problem hun, let me know if there’s anything else I can get you. Just place the tray outside the door when you’re finished.” Then she was turning and heading back down the hall.

Kat closed the door and set the tray on the table. She wasted no time in pouring herself a glass of water, then grabbing a bowl of stew and a roll. She hadn’t eaten anything since that partial ration bar the day before, so she was actually pretty hungry. She ate quickly and then made her way to the fresher. She stepped in, closing the door, turned the water on hot and stripped her clothes. She wished she would’ve thought to bring her bag so she could change after but it was only for the night so she could manage. She was just thankful that the fresher was stocked with fresh towels and soap.

After she washed the grime from her hair and body, she simply stood under the hot water, tired but relaxed. Finally, she turned off the water and stepped out. Drying quickly and then re-dressing. She ran her fingers through her thick, long black hair, untangling some small knots. It really had gotten long in the last few months, the tresses ending just under her breasts. She decided to leave it loose for now. On top of the sink, she noticed a small bottle of mouth wash and she could’ve ran out to Meena and kissed her. Really.

_Bless that woman._

She opened the bottle and poured some into the cap, swished her mouth and then placed the bottle back on the sink. She felt a hundred times better now that she was showered and clean, warmth seeping into her bones. Finally, she walked out of the fresher, a small cloud of steam billowing out behind her. When she stepped back into the room, Mando was sitting in the other chair at the table. She noticed he had eaten while she was showering. His helmet turned her way, and she smiled at him, brushing her hand through her hair as she walked over.

As she picked up the tray, sans the water and glasses, he finally spoke.

“Thank you…” he said softly, indicating towards the now empty bowls.

“No problem Mando.” She whispered back, she’s fairly certain he hadn’t eaten in the last two days, unless he snuck something while she was sleeping. Now, she knew it was most likely because of the helmet, and the extra passengers he’d picked up recently. “Have to make sure you eat more going forward…” she trailed off and sighed, guilt heavy in her tone. “I didn’t notice before, but now I know you need privacy, so I’ll make sure you get some from here on out.” She turned and opened the door, placing the tray on the ground. She re-closed the door and moved to sit on the side of the bed, facing him.

As she sat down, she suddenly remembered the whole bed predicament, she could feel the slight blush forming on her face.

“So…uh…they only had this room available.” She explained, “And I didn’t know there would only be the one bed…”

“It’s okay,” Mando said before she could go on, “I’m used to staying up for days at a time when its needed.”

“What?” she questioned, the shock apparent in her voice and probably on her face, “No, you have to be even more tired than I am at this point, you need to rest.” She sighed and ran a hand through her hair again. “Look, I’m okay with it if you are,” she gestured towards the bed, “I know I can trust you, and I hope you know you can trust me as well.”

He looked from her to the bed and back again, he seemed a bit tense, but nodded his head, “Yeah…okay.”

“Okay.” She responded shyly. “So…how did your talk go?”

He let out a deep sigh, “Bo-Katan said she would help me return the child to the Jedi, but she needs my help first.”

Her mind stalled on the word Jedi. Of course, she knew about them, her parents had told her many stories, but as far as she knew, they were wiped out. At least that’s what was to be believed. She had never come in contact with one in her twenty-seven years of life.

“Wait…” she held a hand up, she quickly looked over at the baby and then back to Mando, “You’re telling me, that this baby is…one with the force?”

Mando paused, “I know that he has…abilities.” He answered, “He saved my life once, by freezing a Mudhorn in mid-air. I was able to kill it because of his help.” Her eyes flicked to the signet on his pauldron. She was astonished. She’d only seen pictures in books, but she knew Mudhorns to be massive, angry beasts. Not felled easily. And the child had…frozen it mid-air?

She looked at the baby again, with furrowed brows, he was so tiny…he must be very powerful.

“He is also 50 years old.” Mando said. Her head whipped back to him, eyes wide and disbelieving.

“50?!” she whispered harshly, trying not to wake said child. “Wow” she breathed, “…so when I asked if things were always exciting with you, the answer is actually yes.”

Mando laughed, “I guess you could say that.”

She smiled and shook her head, still trying to wrap it around this new information.

_A 50-year-old Jedi baby. Incredible._

“So…you said the others need your help first…what exactly do they want?” she asked.

He then went on to explain Bo-Katan’s plan to attack an Imperial cruiser packed full of black-market weapons bought and sold with the plunders of their home planet. She wants to use the weapons to re-take Mandalore and seat a new leader on the throne to rebuild.

He sighed again, obviously tired, looking towards the floor “I…accepted, I know nothing of the Jedi. If Bo-Katan says she can lead me to one, then I need to do this.”

Kat looked him straight in his visor, “This is the Way…right?” she whispered. His helmet jolted up, surprised.

“You…” he leaned forward in the chair, “You seem to know a bit about Mandalorians…” a statement, not a question.

She began to braid her hair in a loose fish-tail style over her right shoulder. “My parents were adamant about my education growing up.” She explained, “My mother home-schooled me for hours every day. I don’t know how, but she always found more and more texts for me to read, quizzing me constantly.” A small, distracted smile on her lips, “She taught me the basics about Mandalorian culture, clan and creed. The Purge. How to recognize a Mandalorian if I ever saw one. She said she was friends with a Mandalorian once…before…”

“Hmm. I knew you recognized what I was when I stepped into your cantina.”

She smirked at him, “Mhm, you know…” she broke off with a small laugh, still working slowly on her braid, “I even know some Mando’a…not a lot, just some basics and a few sayings. One of the books my mother acquired was a language book, and my mother’s friend had taught her some as well.”

“Really?” he sounded surprised, “…say something.”

Her eyes bolted up towards him, “…what?”

“Go on, say something to me in Mando’a.” he encouraged her.

“Okay…” she trailed off thinking of what to say, “…Ib'tuur jatne tuur ash'ad kyr'amur.” She whispered slowly.

He sat up straight and laughed, “Nice choice…that was actually very good. I’m impressed.”

She finished her braid with a small giggle, “Vor entye.” She said, “Maybe you can teach me some new words as we travel.” Sending him a sly smile.

He nodded, “Yeah…maybe I will.”

She crawled under the blanket on her side of the bed, looking back at him.

“When do you need to leave to go help?” she asked.

“Early. A few hours from now. You stay here with the kid and rest. Four Mandalorians should be able to handle it. I’ll be back before you wake.” He said.

“Okay…” she whispered, eyes starting to droop, “Nuhoy, Mando.”

Soon, the light was turned off, and she felt the bed dip just as she fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mando'a Translation:
> 
> Ib'tuur jatne tuur ash'ad kyr'amur - Today is a good day for someone else to die. 
> 
> Vor Entye - Thank you.
> 
> Nuhoy - Sleep.
> 
> I hope ya'll are enjoying the story so far!


	7. Chapter 7

He slipped back into their room a little after dawn. The mission to hijack the Imperial cruiser and the crates of weapons was a success. He wasn’t quite sure what to think of Bo-Katan and the things she had told him, but he did know that he couldn’t accept her offer of joining them. He had a more important path at the moment, reuniting the child with one of his kind, and now he had a location. There was also the matter of Kat, he had found himself growing used to her presence. They hadn’t known each other long, but she had proven she could be trusted more than once. And he genuinely enjoyed their partnership.

He walked over to where the woman and his foundling were both still sleeping, making sure to not make a sound. He would let them sleep a bit longer before heading back to the Razor Crest. He couldn’t help the warm feeling that blossomed in the pit of his stomach as he looked down at Kat. She was absolutely beautiful with her dark black hair and radiant olive skin. Every time she looked at him with her golden amber eyes his heart rate would increase. He found himself not wanting to look away, staring at her lips more than he would ever admit, and he had never wanted to kiss someone so bad in his life.

Now, Mando was no blushing virgin, he had dalliances in his time, you know just a tumble here or there to scratch the itch. But he had never had serious feelings or emotions for a woman, ever. He had never wanted to let himself get that close to someone, always thinking that his way of life would never mesh well with a relationship. The fact that he was a Mandalorian would complicate things, but being a bounty hunter as well? Chasing down dangerous marks and living on a cramped ship? He never thought it would work.

But the longer he traveled with Kat, the more she impressed him, and the more she wiggled her way into his heart. He had been alone for a long time, only occasionally meeting up with those in his clan. He was constantly taking jobs, hardly ever stopping, but then he found the kid. He knew he cared for the child deeply, even though he tried not to show it so openly, and now…now there was Kat.

He let out a quiet sigh and turned to head towards the fresher. He was a battle-hardened warrior, but even he needed to soothe his sore muscles and tired body under the stream of hot water. The last few days had not been easy, and he was running on almost no sleep and very little nourishment. As he stood under the hot water, he found himself thinking about the previous night, how he had come to the room to find food waiting for him. The fact that she had thought to do such a thing made him smile softly, but when he saw her step out of the fresher with wet hair and flushed skin from her shower, his heart just about burst from his chest.

And then, she spoke Mando’a to him. Almost flawlessly. He knew in that moment that he was a goner, completely screwed if he was being honest with himself.

About twenty minutes later he stepped back into the room, armor back on and feeling much better. Well, as good as he could until he could catch some more sleep. Kat had woken up during his shower, she was sitting at the table, her jacket and bandana back on. She was leaning over putting her boots on when she heard him enter, she looked up at him and smiled.

“Jate vaar’tur, Mando.” She whispered, the child still asleep.

“Jate vaar’tur.” He responded with a small smile on his lips, even though she wouldn’t be able to see it.

She stood, picking up her belted leg holster and started sliding it through her pant loops as he approached her. After she fastened the buckle, she reached down and fastened the strap wrapped around her upper thigh.

“Well, I don’t see any injuries,” she said looking up at him, “So I assume everything went according to plan?”

“Yeah, we’ll be heading to Corvus.” He answered, “Bo-Katan said there is a Jedi there.”

Kat nodded at him and walked over to the bed to retrieve the child. He stood by the door, watching as she gently raised the baby, holding him to her chest and shushing him as he started to fuss. The child buried his head into her neck, not waking up for even a second. Mando’s heart clenching at the sight.

Kat made her way over to him, “Someone’s tired.” She whispered. He led them out of the room. “He’s not the only one.” He responded.

* * *

It was a short walk back to the ship, and he almost couldn’t believe the sight that met him. The Crest was still a kriffing mess. He grumbled in disbelief at the port attendant before signing off on the repairs, if that’s even what you could call them. Kat followed him up the ramp and into the cockpit, silent and with a look of confusion on her face at the sight of netting and fishing wire hung from random places.

“Unbelievable.” She mumbled under her breath. Mando grunted in agreement.

Kat fastened the now wide-awake child into his seat and then sat down in her own to his left. She watched out the window as he lifted them into the air, the Crest shaking and jolting as they went, clearly still unstable. All of the sudden the baby let out a squeal, her head turned in his direction just in time to see a squid dropping from the ceiling towards the baby’s face. With the fastest reflexes in the galaxy, Mando’s hand shot out and snatched it before the thing could hit its mark. Without even looking.

_He is so kriffing hot._

The baby started to laugh, thinking the whole thing hilarious apparently. His reaction was contagious, and she couldn’t help but let out a laugh of her own.

* * *

She had taken her jacket off, slinging it over the back of her seat and climbed down the ladder to the hull. She made her way towards her room and opened the door, the small crates she had previously locked in here had shifted all around along with her bag. Once she straightened the room up, she grabbed a fresh pair of tight black pants and a loose sleeveless black shirt from her bag. She changed quickly, tucking the front of her shirt into her pants loosely and re-fastening her blaster. Surprisingly her braid had held up throughout her slumber, so she left it hanging over her shoulder and headed back towards the cockpit.

She had been gone five minutes, five kriffing minutes, when she came back to see Mando crouched down by a small opening in the wall. He was saying something about wires when she stopped beside him.

“Who the hell are you talking to?” she asked with her hands on her hips.

“The kid.”

Her eyes widened and she dropped down next to Mando quickly, peeking over his shoulder to see the baby all the way in the back of a small crawl space. He was holding two wires in his little hands, one red and one blue. She was no mechanic, and didn’t know much about fixing a ship, but she knew enough to know this was probably not going to turn out well.

“Did you send him in there?” she questioned appallingly.

“…Yeah,” Mando hesitated.

_So, he knew this was probably a bad idea._

Kat narrowed her eyes at him. “You can’t send a baby into a crawl space to do electrical work!”

“Neither of us would fit.” He said, “And I need him to put the red wire where the blue one was and the blue one where the red one was.” He continued, trying to explain the process to the baby. “But don’t let them touch, they are oppositely charged.”

She watched over his shoulder as the baby quirked his head and let out a small “Eh?”, clearly not understanding. He then held up his little hand and tried to put the blue wire back into its spot.

“No…no, don’t put it back,” Mando said holding up a hand, “put it where the red one was and the red one where the blue one was.” He explained again, “but keep them apart.”

The baby looked at him blankly for a second and then started to push the wires together.

“No. No! Hold them apa…!” Mando stressed, but soon there was a snapping sound as the baby smashed them together, frying the board and shocking himself in the process.

Kat gasped, startled, and looked back at Mando with a glare. She slapped him lightly on his right pauldron, “Mando.” She admonished.

He sighed, “Are you alright?” he asked the kid softly. The child looked back at them and coo-ed. He was okay.

Mando turned his helmet slightly towards her, “…It was worth a shot.”

She tilted a brow at him before standing up, “I was gone for five kriffing minutes.” She grumbled, “While you figure out a way to get him out of there, I’m going to heat us up some broth for lunch.”

She turned on a heel just before pressing her lips together to stop herself from laughing. The kid was okay, and she had to admit the whole ordeal was a bit funny.

A few minutes later, Mando entered the hull with the child in his arms, just as she was pouring broth into three cups. He sat down on a crate and placed the child down next to him. She walked over and handed them both their cups, the kid immediately starting to chug his down. She walked back to grab hers when Mando spoke, “There’s no way we’re reaching Corvus in this shape.”

She turned around to address him, cup in hand, when he pushed his helmet up a few inches, raising his broth up to drink. She only got a short glimpse of his chin, but she about dropped her cup at the sight. It was a very quick motion but just enough for her to see a hint of golden bronze skin. She stood there, eyes wide and mouth slightly agape like a damn idiot before she quickly raised her broth to her lips for a drink. She could feel her cheeks warming up with a blush and pointedly looked at the floor when she brought her cup back down.

He just did it so casually, with no hesitation or warning whatsoever. Yeah, she didn’t see his face, but still! She saw the edge of his chin, didn’t that kind of count? She was freaking out internally when he continued his line of thought, “I think it’s time to visit some friends for repairs.”

She snapped her eyes back to him. He seemed completely as ease, but in thought.

_Maybe he doesn’t realize what he just did? Maybe he forgot she was standing there?_

He looked at the kid, “How’d you like to go back to Nevarro?” he asked the little green bean. The kid’s ears perked up and he let out a small chirp.

And then Mando did it _again._ Tilting his helmet up with a hiss. She quickly averted her eyes as her heart hammered in her chest.

_This man is trying to kill me, I swear._

* * *

When they landed on Nevarro, they were met by an older, dark-skinned man wearing nice clothes, far too nice for a rough and tumble planet like this. Meaning he didn’t get his hands dirty. A very pretty woman stood next to him, she was probably a few years older than her, but looked like a straight up TANK. Her arms were made of pure muscle and were twice the size of her own, one wrapped in a tattoo of horizontal bars. The woman was wearing a few pieces of her own armor and had a heavy blaster strapped to her hip.

They both approached, the man speaking first, “Looks like someone could use some repairs.” He reached forward as did Mando, the two men greeting each other in a friendly forearm grab.

“How’s my credit around here?” Mando quipped.

“I think something can be arranged,” the man smiled, “Isn’t that right Marshal?”

The woman stepped forward, rubbing the baby’s arm, the little bean looked up at her with a smile and coo-ed. “I’m sure we can work something out.” She said as she looked up at Mando with a fond smile.

“I’ll get my best people on it” the man stated, looking back at a group of workers a few feet away. “Hey fellas, let’s fix this man’s ship. I want it as good as new.” He then turned and looked at her, “And who might this lovely lady be?” he asked. “Greef Karga.” he said, holding his hand out to her. She returned the handshake, “I’m Katlin, Mando’s…partner.” She exclaimed with a small pause, not quite sure what to say.

The woman in front of her held her hand out for a handshake as well, “Cara,” she said, “nice to know he has someone watching his back.”

Greef turned his attention on the baby, “And you, come here little one.” He said affectionately, plucking him out of Mando’s arms. “Has Mando been taking good care of you?” he asked the child, then looked at Mando, “Have you been taking good care of him?” he asked seriously, not waiting for a reply as he turned and started walking towards the town, talking to the baby as he went.

Kat saw Cara and Mando look at each other for a second, Cara flashing him another affectionate smile. The two turned and started walking side-by-side, following Karga into the town. Kat stood in place for a second, watching as the woman kept looking over at Mando as they walked. She finally moved her feet to trail behind, her eyes darted from Cara to Mando and back again. She was trying to read the situation here, clearly the two were friends and trusted one another, and she could probably guess that Mando could count the amount of people he was somewhat close to on one hand.

What she couldn’t figure out was whether they were _just_ friends or something more. He hadn’t indicated that he had someone…special, but she wasn’t sure if he trusted her enough to do so even if he did. Kat was always told she was a perceptive person, always aware of her surroundings, and picking up on details others didn’t. That being said, Mando was a different situation all together, he wasn’t like most people. He was a Mandalorian and a bounty hunter, used to keeping everything close to his chest. The man didn’t have many tells, if she were being honest, and she had been trying to read him since she met him. She was beginning to pick up on some meanings behind his movements but other than that, not much.

Now, Kat had experience when it came to intimate relations, so she wasn’t ignorant of the signs, but she wasn’t a pro at it. She had enjoyed a few…prospects…here and there when she would travel to Mos Eisley for one reason or another, but those were just single night adventures after an evening in one of the city’s cantinas. She had even had a boyfriend for a while in Mos Pelgo, before she realized she didn’t care for him like he did her and she broke it off, causing the man to leave town all together.

She went back and forth in her own head, biting her lip while lost in thought. Still trying to figure out what the relationship was between the two in front of her. She wanted to slap herself and laugh at the same time at the ridiculousness of it. She had no reason to feel a pit in her stomach, her and Mando hadn’t known each other for very long after-all. And while he obviously trusted her enough to have her travel with him, they hardly knew each other. He had been nothing but friendly, showing no indication of something more. She needed to knock it off.

She was aware enough to realize they had stopped outside a building in the center of the town, just catching the end of the conversation between the three people in front of her.

“I’m surprised to see this place still standing.” Mando said. There was obviously a story there.

Cara turned around to answer Mando, walking backwards into the building, “Wait until you see the inside.” She said playfully.

Before he walked forward, Mando tilted his head her way but she didn’t notice as she was looking off to the left at a statue of some droid.

“Kat?” Mando called to her. She quickly turned her head to look at him. “Are you okay?” he asked.

“Hm? …Oh, yeah. I’m fine.” She answered quickly, and then walked forward into the building. Mando followed behind after a few seconds. The building was a school. Kat realized it must’ve been converted from an old cantina, seeing as there was a fairly good-sized bar counter off to the left. Mando confirming her guess as he stood off to her right, Cara between them.

“A school?” He said, clearly surprised.

“Told you,” Cara answered, looking at him with another smile, “things have changed a lot around here.”

Greef started down the steps towards a row of desks. “We’re going to leave the little one here so we can talk business.”

Mando stepped forward quickly, “Wait. Wherever _I_ go, _he_ goes.” He stated.

_Well that’s not entirely true. He had left the child with her just last night while he went off with the other Mandalorians._

“Mando, where we’re going…” Greef said, “you don’t want to take a child, trust me.”

_Where the kriff are we going?_

Cara placed a hand on Mando’s shoulder in an effort to reassure him, “He’ll be safe here,” she said softly, “you have my word.”

Kat schooled her face as she looked between the two again. Her heart clenching, and not in a good way.

_Stop it Kat._

After a short walk, they were standing in another building down the way from the schoolhouse. The Marshal’s office seems like. There was a blue Mythrol sitting behind a desk, talking over a comm but trailed off mid-sentence the second he saw Mando. He looked absolutely terrified, letting out a spray of mist, and swallowing nervously.

“I’m surprised to see _you_ here.” Mando stated, standing intimidatingly in front of the blue man.

“Right back at you.” The Mythrol replied.

Karga went on to explain that the man behind the desk was his bookkeeper, had been for years, but he had disappeared one day after embezzling some of Greef’s credits. After his capture and return, they agreed on him working off his debt for the rest of his life.

“Well if he runs off on you again,” Mando said threateningly, “let me know.”

_Is it hot in here? Suddenly its very hot in here._

“Let me assure you, I don’t want to spend any more time in one of your carbonite chambers.” Mythrol answered. The blue man’s eye’s flicked to her, as if noticing her for the first time. She was standing off to the side, right by the door.

His eyes looked her up and down and then up again slowly. He flashed her a smirk, “What is a woman like _you_ doing in a place like Nevarro?”

_Oh great. He was trying to flirt with her. Gross._

Mando took a step forward, biting out one last threat, “One more word in her direction, and I’ll drag you back to my ship right now.”

Her mouth ran dry at his words, why did that turn her on so much?

Then Cara interrupted and insisted they talk about why they were here in the first place. They gathered around a holo of Nevarro. Kat listened on as Karga pointed out a red spot, explaining that it was an old Imperial base.

Cara cut in, “Its where all those troops came from when we defeated Moff Gideon.”

_A Moff? Okay, I really need to get some background info from Mando. Clearly there’s a story here._

They went on to explain how the base was only being run by a skeleton crew, an easy target, and how they wanted to infiltrate and blow it up. Completely freeing Nevarro from any Imperial presence on their planet, making it safe for all the citizens under their care. They had plans to turn Nevarro into a major trade hub for the sector, increasing credit flow and hopefully transforming the planet’s economy.

Mando looked between Cara and Karga, and then turned to look at her briefly. She stood against the wall with her arms crossed and simply shrugged back at him, leaving the decision in his hands.

“Okay,” he accepted, “What are we looking at?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mando'a Translation: 
> 
> Jate vaar'tur - Good Morning.


	8. Chapter 8

Mythrol pulled the speeder to a stop right in front of a door nestled into the lava rock hundreds of feet below the Imperial base. Upon approach Kat observed what she could see of the base, which really wasn’t much. It had been built into the side of the rocky structure, and all she could see was the back side of the building and a protruding landing pad.

She wasted no time jumping out of the speeder once it stopped, the ride was a bit awkward for her. Clearly everyone around her had a bit of history, easily conversing along the way, Mythrol tried to negotiate the extent of his involvement and Karga snapped back at him as they drove. Frankly, Kat was feeling a little out of place.

Mando’s quick assessment of the doors control panel determined that the wiring was indeed melted, so they would either have to try and force it open, or find another way in. She scanned the surrounding area, keeping an eye out while Karga once again threw threat after threat at Mythrol. Making it clear that the blue man better figure out a way to fix the doors controls or he’d leave him stranded in the lava pit.

Mando apparently got sick of waiting and took off through the air towards the landing pad above. About ten seconds later the body of a stormtrooper fell through the sky, landing on the ground with a sickening thud, followed by the door to the lift opening. The four of them squeezed inside the small elevator and shot up towards the base. Kat unholstered her blaster, not sure what to expect up top. The door opened to a waiting Mando and three dead troopers at his feet.

“Empty base huh?” he said flatly. He watched Cara as she walked past him right up to the edge of the platform, looking down into the pit below. Kat stood quietly to the left of Karga as he addressed Mando.

“The reactor should be in the heat shaft. If we drain the cooling lines, this whole base will go up in a matter of minutes.”

Mythrol walked ahead of them towards a large vehicle that sat half covered under a tarp.

“It’s a Trexler Marauder.” He said excitedly, “Do you know how much we could get from this on the black market?”

“It’s getting vaporized like the rest of this base, now lets’ move.” Mando ordered.

A minute later, the base door slid open, the group splitting and sticking close to both walls for cover. Cara followed closely behind Mando, Kat on the other side with Karga and Mythrol trailing reluctantly a few feet behind. She noticed Mando look towards her for a split second when she sidled up behind Karga, but he quickly turned his attention back to hallway in front of them.

They made their way to the control room, Cara sneaking up behind the security officer sitting at a panel. She quickly put him in a headlock, choking him out, while Mando accessed the control panel. He turned all security cameras off and located where the heat shaft was in the base while Karga and Mythrol went through the officer’s pockets, looking for anything useful. She briefly glanced over in time to see Karga holding up a small stick-like object and murmuring to the man next to him, but quickly pointed her eyes back to the door to watch their six.

Before long they were hauling ass through the winding hallways, Mando leading the way. Cara followed right behind him, Kat and Karga walked side-by-side behind her and Mythrol, once again trailed reluctantly a few feet behind. They went to round a corner when Mando and Cara both quickly jolted back, Cara’s hand coming up to Mando’s forearm automatically pulling him back with her. Kat knew it was probably just a reflex, but the sight irked her, and once again she wanted to slap herself, knowing she had no right to feel the way she was feeling.

_Focus, this isn’t the time for distractions!_

She heard a patrol of troopers walking past them, the two men talking and not paying attention to their surroundings. Once the coast was clear, the group sneaked forward again. After a few more turns, they came upon the door to the heating shaft, Mando ordering Mythrol to handle the door. Kat moved up next to Mando as Karga stepped forward and handed the code cylinder to Mythrol.

Kat noticed Mando turn his helmet towards her out of the corner of her eye. She realized she hadn’t said a word to him since he asked her if she was okay outside of the school. It wasn’t really purposeful or anything, she just kept getting caught up in her own head and really didn’t have much to say at the moment. She didn’t turn to acknowledge him, but she was standing close enough to him that she was able to move her elbow over and nudge his arm lightly.

Just after that, the door opened and Mando moved again, leading them through the walkway into the heating shaft. They all walked up to the ledge carefully, peering down to see a river of hot, red lava flowing below. Kat turned back to watch the door as Karga ordered a _very_ reluctant Mythrol to follow the small ledge over to the reactor control and drain the coolant lines. He and Mando turned and walked up beside her to watch the door as well. Mythrol was still complaining and hardly moving towards the reactor, wasting time, and Kat was losing her patience. It was hot and humid as hell in this shaft and she was quite frankly just ready to get back to the kid at this point.

“Oh for the love of…I’ll do it!” she snapped, starting to take a step back when Mando’s hand shot out to grab her wrist, stopping her from doing so. He looked at Mythrol sharply, “Move.” He said lowly, threateningly. Her and Mando looked at each other for a brief second before he finally let go of her wrist and turned his head back to the door.

After about thirty seconds, she could hear the reactors engine shut down, a beeping sound started to alert them of the rapidly rising heat in the core. She could hear the lava below start to bubble and shoot up with the rising temperature.

Cara, Karga and Mythrol hurried past her as they started to run out of the corridor, Mando placing his hand on her lower back, urging her to follow, him taking up the rear of their little group. They ran quickly down hallway after hallway.

“How long do we have?” Cara asked.

“Ten minutes…at most.” Karga replied.

Mando made his way to the front, pulling her along with him, leading the way once again. He stopped them at a junction, throwing his hand up to signal a halt as a squadron of troopers ran past, alerted by the blaring alarm echoing

throughout the base. Mando pointed them in a different direction, they came up on a room with two Imperial’s behind computers. They were frantically pushing buttons and talking harshly to one another about purging all data on the drives. When they noticed their group, they both pulled blasters, the closest man firing at them, the other shooting wildly at the computer consoles.

Kat, Mando, Cara and Karga all lifted their blasters in succession, quickly firing at the men and taking them down. Maybe a bit of over kill, but it got the job done.

They moved into the room quickly, but then slowed when they noticed the long row of water statis pods in the wall. Every single one of them held a body. For a solid thirty seconds, they all looked on in shock and silence. Kat broke from her trance and made for the computer console to see if she could glean any information from it. Both of the Imperials were slumped over the console, she walked up and pushed the first man off to access the first computer, the other dead man to her right.

The other four were still examining the pods.

“I thought you said this was a forward operating base.” Cara said turning to Karga.

“I…thought it was.” He said perturbed.

“No, this isn’t a military base, this is a lab.” Cara answered. “We need to get into the system and figure out what’s going on.”

“Already on it.” Kat stated, the four of them turning to look at her. Mythrol started to walk over to the other computer to her left, but suddenly, the dead man to her right jolted up, not so dead after-all. It all happened so damn fast. She saw a bright shine in the corner of her eye, the man was holding a small dagger in between two fingers, it was about three inches in length, and he was swiping it straight towards her.

If there was ever a time where Kat was extremely grateful for her father putting her through rigorous combat training, it was now. Her reflexes as fast as a loth-cat, her left hand flew out, wrapping around the man’s wrist, twisting it around and breaking it with a loud snap. Her right arm flew forward and back at the same time, her wrist flying back and striking the man in his throat, hard. He let out a gasping choke and then a blaster bolt shot right through the center of his chest. Kat let go of his wrist, watching as the man began to fall to the ground, truly dead this time. She looked up and saw Mando standing with a smoking blaster in his hand.

“Well, that could’ve been a close one.” Kat breathed out with a small laugh, the adrenaline still pumping through her. Her heart beating fast and hands shaking slightly at her sides, she curled them into fists hoping no one would notice. Not that she was embarrassed really, that strike could’ve been fatal, and she just didn’t want any of them fussing over her.

Mando approached quickly, Cara and Karga following. Kat glanced over to Mythrol in an effort to divert the attention back to the computers.

“You want to check that one and Ill finish looking through this one?” She said to the blue man. She then ducked her head down towards the screen, but Mando wasn’t going to be shrugged off so easily. He leaned over the console towards her.

“Are you alright?” he asked. Kat didn’t answer, and after a beat, his hand gripped her elbow, firm but soft all at the same time. Demanding an answer but in a soothing way. He noticed the shaking; of _course_ he did.

She paused and looked at his visor, “Yeah…. he’s dead and I’m not, so yeah I’m alright.” She answered softly. Satisfied, he let go of her elbow, she was about to start scrolling through the computer again just as a holo of a man popped up in front of Mythrol.

They all inched closer so they could hear the audio better. The man was a doctor it seemed, he went on talking about some experiment and a donor. Needing more blood samples? Clearly they weren’t getting the desired results, as their subjects kept dying. He said something about “the child” and Mando’s head immediately jerked, looking over to Greef and Cara. Kat eyed them all but didn’t say anything, listening as the doctor went on, stating they needed access to the donor again.

_Wait…when he said “the child”, did he mean…?_

The message was addressed to this Moff Gideon that Cara had mentioned earlier in the day.

“This must be an old transmission,” Mando said, “Moff Gideon is dead.”

“No…” Mythrol countered, pulling up the time stamp on the log, “this recording is only three days old.”

“If Gideon is alive, then…” Mando began, but was interrupted as Stormtroopers rounded the corner. Mando and Cara bolted over to the pods for cover. Kat, Mythrol and Karga dipping down behind the console. All returning fire and dispatching all troopers after a small shoot-out.

They all came out of cover and moved to the center of the room, Kat walking up next to Mando. He turned and addressed the others while slowly walking backwards, “I need to get back to the kid.” He said urgently.

“Jet back, you’re faster that way.” Cara said, “We’ll head to the speeder and meet you in town.”

Mando reached forward and grabbed Kat’s arm, pulling her with him just as she went to follow Cara and the others.

“You’re coming with me.” He stated firmly. She pulled her arm gently from his grasp, he must’ve thought she was going to argue because he hesitated for a second. But then she slid her hand into his, letting him lead her towards an exit.

They ran down a hallway that curved to the right, just as they rounded the corner, two Stormtroopers came into view, headed their way. Before the two could react, Mando and Kat lifted their blasters together, both taking one a piece and quickly dispatching them. They continued running until they reached the heating shaft again. They came to a stop, both looking down to see the lava steadily rising. A trooper came out from a walkway across from them, firing his blaster, but missing. Mando took him out quickly and then slid an arm around her waist, pulling her to him tightly. She wrapped her left arm over his shoulder, gripping the back of his cowl. He activated his jet-pack and they went flying upwards through the shaft.

She saw blaster bolts fly past them from below, but each one missed. They flew out through the opening, Mando blasting away two troopers waiting for them on the surface. As soon as he landed them back on the ground, a blaster bolt hit Mando in his right pauldron, causing him to jerk forward slightly. Kat reflexively aimed her blaster forward and shot the trooper dead.

Mando looked at her and she looked at him. Her face just an inch from his helmet, her eyes fell to where his lips would be. She felt his hand tighten on her waist, so she dared to let her hand slide from his cowl and wrap around the back of his neck just under his helmet. She felt him tense, her eyes slowly moving up, meeting his behind the visor.

“I would never…” she whispered, “You can trust me.”

He nodded at her and then pressed her tightly against him once again, taking off through the sky in the direction of the town.

* * *

They landed right outside the school a mere few minutes later. She waited outside while he ran in to get the child. He came back out, clutching the little bean to his chest, the child looking up at him in confusion and clutching a sleeve of blue cookies in his little hand.

“Let’s get to the Crest,” Mando said, both immediately took off in that direction at a brisk pace. Mando was obviously worried about this Moff Gideon and what was said on the transmission. He hit a button on his vambrace, lowering the ramp when they were still a good twenty paces from the ship. The Crest looked brand spanking new, completely repaired and shining prettily in the sun.

Just as they reached it, they heard the sound of a loud explosion in the distance, and then the unmistakable whistle of a TIE fighter. Faint from where they stood but there was no denying the sound.

“Must be the others.” Mando said, “They’ll need back up.” He took off for the cockpit, her following right behind. He quickly strapped the kid in as she took her seat, doing the same. He sat in the pilot’s chair and started flipping switches and pressing buttons without even looking, having gone through the process hundreds of times by now.

Within less than a minute they were in the air and flying back towards the Imperial base through the clouds in a wide arc. He was trying to get behind the TIE unnoticed to perform a flanking maneuver. After a few minutes, he lowered the ship down, breaking through the clouds. They could see their friends below speeding across the blackened ground in the Marauder they saw when they first entered the base. They were swerving to avoid the blaster shots coming from the TIE’s hot on their tail. Not just one TIE, but three.

Kat thought back to the chase with the X-Wings that caused them to crash land on that ice planet. She was a bit more confident in the Razor Crest’s maneuverability since that little venture, but she was even more confident in the man behind the controls. She couldn’t help but feel a little bit excited along with her nerves. She blamed it on the adrenaline, it’s been another crazy, action packed day.

Mando sped the Crest forward at full speed, gaining on the TIE’s, but Kat wasn’t sure if he would make it in time. She noticed how one fighter closed in on their friends below. Just as it seemed to line up with the Marauder to blast it to pieces, Mando got a lock on it with his targeting system. He hit the trigger to the Crest’s cannons, blasting the TIE to pieces.

The other two TIE’s sped forward and up into the sky, splitting off in separate directions. Mando threw the throttle forward, sending the Crest in hot pursuit, flying right over their friends and breaking right, following the one fighter up into the sky. Kat’s hands gripped the armrests, gravity pressing her back into her seat. She heard the baby squeal and glanced over at him. He looked like he was having fun, his mouth open in a smile and a cookie gripped in his hand.

“Hang on.” She heard Mando call back to them. He fired at the TIE flying ahead of them, trying to nail it with a shot as they flew higher into the clouds. He steered the ship back and forth, following the movement of the starfighter. Finally he got another lock, hitting the trigger and blasting off its right wing, flames engulfing the center pod causing it to explode. Debris rained down passed them, little bits smacking off the transparisteel.

Suddenly, Mando pulled the throttle back and cut the engines, the momentum still pushing them up a bit and flipping them over completely. Kat’s heart-beat slamming against her chest and her stomach twisting with the sudden maneuver. She could hear the metal of the Crest creaking around them. As soon as they were facing down towards the ground below, Mando re-started the engines and threw the throttle forward again. They shot forward heading straight for the last remaining TIE fighter that was currently trying to land a shot on them. Mando steered the Crest into a spin to move them out of the blaster fire.

Kat heard the kid squealing in delight, little giggles filling the cockpit. She looked over again and saw him with his arms in the air, having the absolute time of his life. And she couldn’t blame him really. Despite the immediate danger that could end them all, it was pretty exhilarating. Fun even. Kat couldn’t help the laugh that burst from her chest as she listened to the kid’s laughter.

They spiraled down fast, getting closer and closer, both pilot’s aiming for each other. Like a game of chicken. The TIE pilot kept firing at them and kept missing. Kat glanced at Mando, obviously she couldn’t see his face, but there was nothing about his body language that indicated his was worried or stressed in any way. In fact, he seemed completely calm at the moment. She watched as he took aim, his gloved finger hovering over the gun’s trigger. And then, he locked onto his target and fired.

She looked forward again, just in time to see the TIE blast apart in front of them. They flew right through the smoke and debris, bursting out of the clouds and into the clear sky below. She could see Nevarro City and right outside, their friends waving their arms and cheering at Mando’s victory.

Mando turned his head to look back at the kid. Checking that he was okay.

“Not bad, huh kid?” he said casually. The baby looked at his father, blinked, and then promptly threw up all down the front of his tiny robe.

“Oh boy…” she heard Mando mumble.

Kat huffed in amusement, “Not bad he says,” causing his head to turn in her direction. She flashed him a flirty smirk, “Might have to start calling you Flyboy instead.” His helmet tilted inquisitively.

Then the comm beeped, Mando hit the button and Karga’s voice illuminated the cockpit.

“That was some pretty impressive flying Mando.” He said, “What do I owe ya?”

Kat unbuckled her belt so she could clean up the kid, but then Mando twisted back, cloak in hand, and reaching towards the child.

She started, “Wait…don’t…” but she was too late, he was wiping the child’s mouth and the front of his robe, using his cloak to clean up the mess.

She sighed.

_Men. Now I have to wash the baby’s robe AND Mando’s cloak._

“With the repairs, let’s call it even.” Mando replied to the man on the comm.

“Can I at least buy you a drink?” Karga asked.

“Sorry, I have some on-board maintenance I have to take care of,” Mando answered. “And we’ve got to hit the road before Gideon catches wise.”

“Well good luck flying my friend,” Greef said, “You three stay safe out there.”

Mando flicked the comm off and Kat looked below as they flew over their friends and shot off back into the sky.

* * *

Once they hit hyperspace, Kat stood up and took her jacket off leaving it across the back of her seat. She unbuckled her holster and left it as well. She turned and scooped the child into her arms. Stepping up next to Mando, she reached down and tugged on the edge of his cowl. That got his attention and he looked up at her.

“I’m gonna go clean the kid up,” she explained, “give me your cloak so I can clean it too.” There was a small beat of silence as he just looked at her, then he faced forward and without a word he reached a hand up to the front of his cowl, right above where his chest-plate was. He tugged hard on the material, pulling it up from under the beskar plate. He unraveled it from around his neck and leaned forward pulling it away from him. She reached out and grabbed it, accidentally brushing her fingers against his gloved ones, sending a tingle through her skin. Her eyes shot to his helmet, the T of his visor looking straight at her.

Kat subconsciously bit her lip and then turned, walking out of the cockpit and down the ladder to the hull. Unbeknownst to her, Mando sat unmoving in the same position, as if she were still standing next to him. His mind replayed the image of her biting her lip, her cheeks slightly flushed. He wondered if she felt the same spark as he did when their hands touched.

Kat made a bee-line towards the kitchenette. She hadn’t seen a sonic cycler anywhere on the ship, but there was a small sink in the kitchen area. She placed Mando’s cloak on the nearby crate. She pulled up the stopper in the sink and turned the faucet on, filling it up with warm water. She pried the sleeve of cookies from the kid’s hand, only a few remaining in the package, he let out a small whine as she did so.

“Hey now…” she admonished softly, “You’ve had more than enough for the day. You made yourself sick.” She closed up the packaging and set it aside, out of his reach. She turned with the baby in her arms and walked into the fresher, searching the small shower for some soap and a towel. Once found, she made her way back to the sink and turned off the faucet.

She propped the baby up on the counter-top and pulled his robe over his head, sliding his little booties off his feet. She rolled her long sleeves up to her elbows and then placed him gently in the water. She started telling him a little story that her mother used to tell her when she was little. It used to be her favorite as a child, and she wanted to share it with the little bean that had wiggled his way into her heart. Once she was certain he was used to the water, she squirted some soap onto a cloth and started scrubbing away. The little green bean was staring back at her with his big brown eyes as she continued with her tale. Before long, he started hitting the water with his little hands, chasing the bubbles to entertain himself. He splashed her with water a few times, causing her to laugh softly at him in amusement. Once she deemed him clean enough, she pulled the stopper up to drain the water. She reached over and grabbed the towel, drying off the baby and swaddled him up in it, nice and warm.

She stood in place, swaying back and forth slightly, humming a tune and watched his eyes start to droop. He tucked his head into her neck, and she turned around with the intent on taking him up to his hammock for bedtime. She was startled when she saw Mando standing behind her, leaning against the wall on the other side of the kitchen.

She jumped slightly and let out a small gasp, “Sweet stars, you scared me.” She breathed out. He cocked his helmet to the side, “Sorry, I didn’t mean too.” He said softly, “You’re so good with him, have you been around kids before?” Kat could feel her cheeks warming, a small smile breaking across her face.

“Hmm, you’re not so bad with him yourself.” She started, “And no, not really. There were some children in Mos Pelgo, but I didn’t really spend a lot of time with them.” She paused, looking down at the child in her arms, “Guess it’s just…some sort of motherly instinct coming through.” She looked up at Mando and smiled softly at him, “I should put him to bed.” She whispered.

He stood up from his lean, and walked to her quietly, “I’ll put him down.” He murmured. He gently took the boy from her arms, cradling him in his arms and started for the ladder. Once he was out of sight, she let out a breath, her gaze far off, as her thoughts traveled to the Mandalorian once again.

She turned back to the sink, turning the water on and using the soap to scrub the baby’s robe clean. She laid it out on one of the crates and turned to grab Mando’s cloak. She decided to just wash the whole thing, trailing off in thought as she did so. Finally admitting to herself fully that she did indeed have feelings for the man. She was just finishing up when she heard boots hitting the ladder rungs. She turned and hung his cloak up on a hook she saw on the wall.

“Hungry?” she asked over her shoulder.

“I could eat.” He answered, sitting down on the crate against the wall.

They didn’t have much other than broth and ration bars of an assortment of flavors. She went about heating up the broth and pouring it into bowls. She retrieved two ration bars for Mando and one for herself, walking over and handing him his.

“Thank you.”

She grabbed her bowl and bar and started for her room, wanting to give him the privacy he needed. His hand lightly grabbed her wrist, stopping her from brushing past him.

“Stay.” He whispered, she looked at him in question, about to protest when he continued, “We can sit back-to-back.”

She simply nodded her head in agreement, slightly shocked at his request. They sat leaning against each other comfortably, and she heard a small hiss and thunk as he placed his helmet down on the crate. They sat in a natural silence for a minute, until he spoke.

“Why flyboy?”

She laughed, “It’s a compliment,” she replied, “It’s a nickname used for a hot-shot pilot. I know this because it’s what all my father’s rebellion buddies called him.”

He chuckled, “I see.”

Butterflies fluttered in her stomach at the sound of his unmodulated voice.

_Oh who am I kidding, his modulated voice gets me going too._

She bit into her ration bar, chewing slowly and swallowing, “Seriously though Mando, you’re an amazing pilot.”

“Thanks,” he said, “Can you fly?”

“You’d think so, since I’m the daughter of an elite starfighter pilot,” she sighed, “But no, never got the opportunity.”

There was a pause, “I could teach you.”

“Really?” she asked surprised. “You’d trust me with your ship?”

“Yeah, sure.” Mando replied, “Would probably be a good idea for you to learn.”

“Okay, sounds good.” Kat was beaming, “So…we headed to Corvus?”

“Actually…no.” Mando answered, “I was thinking we could use a little bit of down time after everything, and it might be smart to lay low for a few days.” He took a deep, relaxed breath.

They continued to sit back-to-back for a little while after that. Kat asked what the story was with the child, so Mando told her about how he came to be his foundling. He told her about Moff Gideon and the battle that took place in Nevarro. He told her about Quill and IG-11. He didn’t really go into detail on the topics, especially for those last two, but she could tell by how he leaned a little more heavily against her that losing them had hurt. That he felt guilty for their deaths.

Eventually, Mando insisted she get some rest. She heard him secure his helmet and stand, she followed right after and took the bowls to the sink, rinsing them and storing them away. She started to head towards her room slowly, and just as she reached the door, she looked back at him, smiling fondly.

They both seemed to hesitate for a few seconds, feeling that magnetic pull again. It was obvious that they could sit and talk all night long, but they were both clearly tired and needed sleep, or else taking care of the little munchkin tomorrow would be hell.

“Goodnight Mando.” Kat whispered, just loud enough for him to be able to hear.

“Goodnight…Mesh’la.” She recognized the word, spoken from his lips as a term of endearment, and she blushed, ducking her head and quickly entering her quarters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mando'a Translation: 
> 
> Mesh'la - Beautiful.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone who has commented, bookmarked and/or sent kudos! It definitely puts a smile on my face to know ya’ll are enjoying the story so far!

She had passed out as soon as her head hit her pillow. She woke up early the next morning, the artificial track lighting sending a soft glow through the small crack under the door. She fumbled around for a second trying to find the light switch on the wall, stubbing her toe on one of the small crates still stacked around the room.

Kat clenched her jaw and hummed as the pain throbbed through her. Once she could see what she was doing she grabbed a clean set of clothes from her bag, she only had one set left after this, so she hoped they were headed somewhere with a market. She picked out a pair of tight light tan pants, a green long sleeve henley, panties and a bra. She grabbed her toiletry bag and headed towards the refresher.

The ship was still quiet, no movement whatsoever, only the quiet hum of the engines could be heard. She noticed a datapad laying on a crate and tapped the screen, hoping to see the time. She was a bit surprised to see it was only 5:45 in the morning. She shut the door to the fresher and quickly hopped under the hot water, pleasantly surprised that Mando had an actual shower on board. She washed her hair and body and then ran her laser groomer over where it was needed. She hopped out and dried off quickly, throwing her hair up in a towel. She rubbed lotion on her newly soft legs and dressed. Brushing her teeth and then throwing on a small amount of makeup.

Kat wasn’t a materialistic woman, but she did enjoy pampering herself when it came to personal hygiene. She was still a woman after-all, and she liked treating herself sometimes. She tucked her toiletry bag onto the small shelf in the wall next to some of Mando’s things. She grabbed her sleep shorts and cami and walked out into the hull. She made her way back to her room, deciding that it was time to move the crates out and organize everything better.

She peered into a few of the crates, seeing spare parts, nuts, bolts, wires, fuses, etc. Everything a professional spacer would need to fix his or her ship. Another crate held cryo canisters, full of the minerals and chemicals used for cryonics. She assumed the canisters in the carbonite freezer needed to be replaced every so often, she re-sealed the crate and pushed it outside the room. There were a few other crates that she opened, organized and stowed along the wall of the hull across from her room. Once she cleaned out her space, she grabbed her bag, and organized the small bit of items onto the shelf unit.

She let her half-dried hair down and began braiding it in a halo fashion around her skull, leaving a few short pieces to frame her face. Just as she finished, she heard the fresher door shut, signaling that Mando was up and about. She figured it was time to go check on her little green bean. She climbed the ladder and saw the child sitting up in his little hammock just inside Mando’s room. He was still wrapped in the soft towel from his bath, Kat scooped him up and carried him down to the kitchen area. His robe had fully dried throughout the night, so she re-dressed him and then grabbed him a ration bar for breakfast. Mando had a variety of flavors he must’ve picked up at some point. She grabbed one out of the box and turned to the kid.

“What do you think about…” she trailed off, reading the wrapper, “Dricklefruit flavor?”

“Bah.”

“Okay. Dricklefruit it is.” She unwrapped the bar and handed it to him. She grabbed one for herself at random, and bit into it, pleasantly surprised at the sweet, fruity flavor. Looking at the wrapper that read Jogan fruit flavor. The kid had long since inhaled his and was reaching in the air, indicating he wanted another. She grabbed him a second bar, figuring he was a growing boy, right? She heard door to the fresher open just as she finished her bar.

Mando stepped out, steam from his shower billowing behind him. She shamelessly checked him out when he emerged, armor-less. Finally getting a proper look at his firm body that was always hidden under the beskar. He was wearing his usual black pants and a black long-sleeve. The material was made out of thick armor weave, but it hugged his body, showing off his impressive physique. Kat slowly trailed her eyes up to his helmet to find him looking right at her.

_Kriff, he caught me slippin._

He tilted his helmet a bit, confirming that he did, in fact, catch her staring at him. Feeling bold this morning, she decided she was not going to look away this time, and coyly bit her lower lip.

He cleared his throat, “Good morning.”

“Morning Mando.” She replied softly.

“You already fed the kid?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said, “Did you feed yourself?” she teased with a smirk.

He sighed, “Yes Mesh’la.”

She giggled at his response, “So, where are we headed?”

“Yavin-4. It’s quiet and the jungle will provide cover for the Crest.”

“Makes sense,” she smiled “I’ve never been. I was hoping to hit a market if possible.”

“I’ll get us as close as I can to one.” He said as he made his way towards the ladder.

“How much longer until we land?”

“Few more hours.” He replied as he made his way up to his quarters, most likely to armor-up.

She was leaning against the kitchenette, listening to the kid babble on and on about something he obviously thought was interesting. She gazed around the hull, taking in the very practical but bland ship. There were no personal touches anywhere. She looked to the right to see a space in the wall next to the fresher. She instantly had an idea of what she wanted to put there, hoping she could find it on Yavin-4.

After spending quite some time making a mental list of some of the things she wanted to look for at the market, she picked the baby up and made her way towards the cockpit. Mando was already sitting in the pilot’s seat, now fully armored. She set the baby down on his chair and then turned to hers, her gun belt and jacket still draped over the back of the chair.

She slid the belt on, tightening straps here and there, when Mando turned his chair around to face her. He sat watching her for a minute in silence.

She blushed slightly, “Something on your mind?” she asked.

“We have about an hour until we land on Yavin-4,” he began, “In the meantime, I could teach you the flight controls, if you’re ready.”

“Yeah, that sounds great.” She smiled. He quirked his head, motioning her to his side.

They spent the next thirty minutes or so going over the controls multiple times, she was a pretty fast learner, but she wanted to memorize the process thoroughly. Mando was nothing but patient with her, and surprisingly a very good teacher. She pegged him as the kind of man who might get annoyed or frustrated over time, but he proved her wrong.

“We’re coming up on our destination,” he said to her, “I want you to watch me land, but I want you to walk me through it along the way.”

She nodded her head, bracing herself against the console, “Prepare to be impressed.”

And he was, she guided him through the landing flawlessly, not messing up or hesitating once. He looked up at her after he shut down the Crest, “I’m impressed,” he quipped, reveling in the light flush that dusted her cheeks, “Next time we’re on a planet with a clear landscape, I’ll get you behind the controls.”

“Can’t wait.” She replied softly.

* * *

A few minutes later, the three of them were walking down the ramp of the Crest. Katlin had her empty pack slung over her shoulder and the baby cradled to her chest. Mando was walking right next to her, hitting a button on his vambrace to shut the ramp and engage the safety protocols.

“We shouldn’t run into any trouble here, but there are some aggressive animals that live in these jungles,” Mando explained, “My visor should pick up on any life signs in the area long before they reach us, but if I’m not with you for some reason, be aware of your surroundings.”

“Awe, you worried Mando?” she teased. His hand wrapped around her wrist, firm but not hurting her.

“I’m serious Kat.” he stressed.

She twisted her hand up, meeting his and squeezing, “I know,” she assured him, “I would never _not_ be serious about the child’s safety. I won’t let anything happen to him.”

He stepped a few inches closer, causing her to tilt her head back a bit with the motion. “I don’t want anything to happen to you either,” he paused, clearly not used to verbally expressing emotion to another person, “We haven’t…known each other long…but you and ad’ika are all that matter.”

She felt an intense wave of emotion at his words. Besides Cobb, she hadn’t had anyone genuinely care about her well-being in a long time. Not since she lost her parents. She knew the townsfolk of Mos Pelgo respected her, cared to an extent, but not on a very personal level. Mando’s right, they haven’t known each other long, but there is no denying the fact that they have both had a magnetic connection since the moment they met. Trusting each other completely. She knew it. He knew it. It might seem a little crazy but it just…was. She didn’t know how else to explain or rationalize it.

She could feel her eyes watering, so she quickly ducked her head down, not wanting him to see. But he already had of course, the man seemed to miss nothing. He squeezed her hand softly and she looked back into his visor, another fond smile on her lips. He just seemed to constantly bring it out of her.

“I could say the same about you.” She whispered. They stood holding hands for a comfortable moment until he broke them out of the trance.

“We should get moving if you want to be able to enjoy the market,” he said, “Its late afternoon here.”

They walked on through a forest path towards the nearby town, still holding hands until they reached the market. Kat walked ahead, instantly taken by the many vendor stands in the town center. She was ready to blow some credits, her small pouch on her belt full of a couple thousand. She was able to save up a very generous savings while on Tatooine, so she wasn’t really worried about price today.

She approached a food stand that seemed to have an assortment of items imported from all over. She gasped as she saw the chokie boxes and pika fruit that were native to Tatooine. She selected a box and three pieces of the fruit. She pointed to a loaf of blossom bread and then an assortment of fresh and dried meats, indicating to the vendor to add them to her purchases. She pointed out some different vegetables and then she grabbed a bunch of ration bars in various flavors, making sure to get a good amount of the ‘Mandalorian Orange’ flavor. She grabbed a few ration boxes, some ryshcate pastries and at the last second, she spotted the canister of spiced caf, which was marked as a limited special item. Spiced caf was a Mandalorian version of regular caf, and anything Mandalorian related was most definitely considered special since they’re so rare these days. Which made it expensive, but so worth it in her opinion, she couldn’t wait to surprise Mando with it. Speaking of Mando, when she went to hand the payment over, he grabbed her wrist to stop her and went to reach into his own pouch. She immediately stopped him, there was no way she was going to let him foot the, no doubt, hefty grocery bill after everything she chose.

“No Mando, today’s market trip is on me.” She said.

He began to shake his head, “What kind of man would I be if I let you pay for everything? You and the kid are my responsibility now.”

She took a step closer, placing herself mere inches from him, “Mando, stop. You have taken care of practically everything since taking me on. I’ve been eating the food on your ship, the ship that you keep fueled up and in working order.” She went on, “Please let me do this, in fact I need to do this, okay? Let me take care of my two guys.” She insisted with pleading eyes.

He huffed and looked away, clearly not happy with it but he couldn’t argue with her when she looked at him like that. She spun around quickly and paid the woman waiting patiently behind the counter.

After handing over the credits to a very happy vendor, she started moving onto the next. But before she could get far, the child started fussing, reaching towards Mando and wiggling in her arms. He had clearly had enough of her for the time being and wanted to be held by his father. Mando looked down at him and then reached out, plucking him from her arms.

She came up to a clothing vendor, grabbing a few extra pairs of pants in different colors, a soft white sweater, and a skin-tight black under armor short sleeve. She turned towards the men’s clothing, picking out a few pairs of black pants, and a few soft long sleeve shirts in black, dark burgundy and dark green. She grabbed some little pants for the baby in a few colors to wear under his robe and then picked up a spool of tan fabric so she could fashion him an extra robe. She headed towards the counter, glancing over to find Mando, but he was gone. She stopped mid-stride, brow furrowing in confusion for a few seconds wondering where he could’ve gone, but she figured he had a good reason for wandering off. She continued on towards the counter when a certain rack caught her attention, she felt her cheeks warm and quickly looked around before she decided to take a gander.

She walked up to a corner rack that had beautiful, intricate lingerie. She was probably getting ahead of herself for even _thinking_ that she might need such sexy garments, but she thought…maybe someday? All she currently had were basic panties designed for comfort, two regular plain bras, and two compression breastbands.

Kriff it, she was treating herself, right? And…possibly Mando as well if things were moving in the direction she was hoping. She saw a beautiful lacy bra and panty set in a hot red color, a dark black set that was mostly sheer but had small rhinestones along the ribbing, and a tiny… _tiny_ , strappy set in a rosy pink, it was built for perkiness and support and little else, the lace on the cups dipping so low that her nipples would definitely peak out. The thought of wearing these for _him_ made her heart rate increase and her stomach clench. She grabbed all three sets and quickly made for the counter.

She definitely spent a pretty penny there, but it was totally worth it. She stepped out from under the tent, looking around and still not seeing him anywhere, she shrugged to herself and continued down the line. The next stand held special clothing items, like reinforced jackets and cloaks of varying styles. She picked out a black, mid-length, hooded cloak. She spotted some more bandana’s picking out one in black and another in a desert-yellow color. She spotted a black leather ballistic jacket and it fit her like a glove. It was lightweight but lined with armor-weave. She made her purchases and moved on.

She was almost done here. She only had a few more things to look for. A small table near the end of this side of the market had some décor and other random items. She saw a basket of small plush toys for children. She thought back to the ship, realizing that she hadn’t seen any toys for the kid. She picked out a stuffed Mudhorn, a stuffed Loth-cat, and a small IG droid figure. She continued to peruse through the wares until she came upon a basket of tapestries.

 _This would do perfectly._ Something to hang up on the hull wall in between the kitchen and where her room sat on the walkway of the Crest. She fingered through many different designs, not entirely loving any of them. And then she saw it…it was absolutely _perfect_. It was a gold tapestry with a symbol of a Mythosaur in black in the center. All around the border of the tapestry were Jaig eyes in black and white. The Mythosaur, being the most iconic symbol of his culture and Jaig eyes were a symbol of bravery for only the most formidable of Mandalorian warriors. _Sold._

Next, she made her way up to a building that carried compact appliances. She walked in and picked out a small laundering unit for the ship. She chose one that could hook up the water line. Lastly, she chose a small Caf-maker and spoke with the sales associate, arranging the delivery to the Crest a mile out from the town. She gave the old man the coordinates for the ship, trusting that he meant them no harm. He ensured that it would be delivered immediately and slipped her a paper. 

She walked out of the shop to find Mando leaning against the wall just outside.

“There you are.” She said, “Where did you disappear too?”

“Something caught my eye,” he responded coolly, “Had to go check it out.”

She narrowed her eyes at him in suspicion but decided to let it slide. “Find everything you were looking for?” he asked.

She laughed, motioning down towards her bulging bags at her side, “Yeah, I’d say.” Her credit pouch almost completely empty now. Which was exactly her goal, she still had a comfortably good-sized sack of credits back in her room on the ship, hidden behind a panel under her bunk.

It was early evening at this point, Mando stood from the wall, the baby resting against his chest.

“Hungry?” he questioned.

She nodded, “Yeah, I could eat.”

He guided her with a hand at the small of her back towards the local cantina. He chose a corner booth, shrouded a bit in darkness. She slid in towards the center, Mando sat to her left, facing the door and sat the child between them. Before long a waitress came over, the pretty lavender colored Twi’lek woman completely ignored Kat’s presence, focusing solely on Mando.

She batted her big blue eyes and leaned slightly forward towards him.

“What can I get you?” she asked demurely.

“Two bowls of stew and a pitcher of water.” He replied, not looking her way.

The woman was about to turn when Kat spoke up, “And a snort of Spotchka.” She smiled sarcastically, the Twi’lek giving her a curt nod and walking away.

They sat in a comfortable silence, things never awkward between them, until the waitress brought their order back a few minutes later. She made sure to come up next to Mando, brushing against his arm slightly as she set everything down. You know, just light enough where it could be suggestive, an invite if wanted, but could also be brushed off as an accident if need be. When Mando ignored her, she promptly turned and hurried away. Kat let out a huffed laugh, earning Mando’s attention immediately.

“What?” he asked.

She looked at him with lifted brows, “Really?” she replied.

He quirked his helmet just a tad to the side in question. Kat rolled her eyes.

“That pretty little Twi’lek practically through herself in your lap.” She stated as she placed a bowl in the kid’s lap and pulled hers in front of her. She stabbed her spoon into her stew, trying to keep an eye on the kid at the same time.

“Are you jealous?” he teased.

_He was teasing her._

Her eyes flicked up at him from her bowl, shooting him a small glare. “No, I’m not.”

“You sure about that?” he murmured; she could practically see the smirk on his face at this point.

A brilliant idea popped into her head at that exact moment. She had left the buttons of her henley shirt un-done when she dressed this morning. She leaned forward, pushing her breasts up slightly, in a smooth motion. It looked natural, like she didn’t _purposefully_ do it. She shot him a flirty smirk and then replied saucily, “Yeah, I’m sure Mando, because I’m the one you invited onto your ship. I’m the one taking care of your son.”

She can’t hear anything from his modulator, but she swears she sees his chest rising and falling a bit faster than it was before. And she can almost bet, with 100% certainty, that he was staring at her cleavage.

He just hummed lowly in response and then she turned back to her bowl. Once her and the child were finished with their dinner, Mando threw some credits down on the table and they were leaving the cantina.

They walked leisurely down the forest path, heading back towards the Crest. The sun was setting, casting a beautiful warm orange glow through the branches of the trees. She was holding the child against her chest again with her right arm, he had quickly fallen asleep after his tummy was full.

Her and Mando were walking closely enough together that every so often the backs of their hands brushed. Eventually, Mando slid his hand into hers.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, they broke through the trees into the view of the Razor Crest, the sun almost completely set at this point. There was a medium sized crate sitting just outside the ship. Mando stiffened immediately at the sight.

_Whoops. Forgot to tell him._

“Don’t worry,” she said, “I had a few things delivered.

His head turned to her, “You gave someone the location of the ship?”

She tutted and let go of his hand, starting to walk forward, “Yes, I gave a 70-year-old shopkeeper the coordinates to the ship.” She snarked, “But don’t worry, if he attacks, I’ll protect you Mando.” She glanced behind her; he was shooting that damn head tilt at her again. The one that meant he was slightly exasperated but very amused at the same time. He hit the button on his wrist for the ramp.

She walked up, dropping her pack right inside the door, and wasted no time climbing the ladder to put the baby down, she hoped he slept through the night. She slid back down into the hull just as Mando was hitting the button on the ramp, re-closing it. The crate was sitting on the larger crate that was sitting in the middle of the floor, acting as a table in the kitchen area. She walked over, taking the strip of paper out of her pants pocket.

She hit the keypad on the crate, entering the code for the lock, and opening the lid. Mando walked over and peered down, his head swiveling back up to her.

“You bought a laundry unit?”

“Mhm,” she pointed to the open space in the wall next to the fresher, “I figured that’s the perfect spot for it, I can hook it up to the water line easily.” He had been looking at the spot and then back at her, “You also bought a Caf-machine.”

“Yes!” she exclaimed excitedly, rushing over to her bag. She brought it over and set it next to the crate, reaching in and pulling out the spiced caf. She handed it to him, “I saw this and couldn’t help myself.”

He looked down and froze, after a beat of silence, he slowly looked back up at her.

“Mandalorian style caf…” he said softly, “Haven’t had this in a long time…it’s hard to find these days.”

“I _know_!” she replied, “I’ve had it before and loved it, but could never find it again.”

He held the canister up in a gesture, “You had to have paid a small fortune for it.”

She brushed him off, starting to unload the food from her bag, “Kinda, but it was completely worth it. I would’ve bought two if she had another.”

She wasn’t paying attention, and she wouldn’t have been able to tell even if she was due to the helmet, but he was staring at her intently, mouth slightly agape in shock. This woman was constantly surprising him.

She started stowing the food away in the cubby above the kitchenette counter. She made it to the ration bars at the bottom of the bag pulling some up and remembering the special flavor she picked up, “Oh! I have something else for you.” She said as she held a ration bar out to him, “I don’t know if you’ve ever had this one but figured I’d grab some anyway.”

He took the bar from her hand and read the wrapper. His heart seized, ‘Mandalorian Orange’, _dank farrik_ , this woman is incredible.

“This is my favorite kind but once again, hard to find.” Mando said, “Thank you, Cyar’ika.”

She smiled softly at him, “…what does that one mean?”

“Cyar’ika?” he reiterated. She nodded in affirmation and sounded the word out quietly under her breath.

He wanted to duck his head, break their eye contact, he wasn’t used to the feelings she stirs in him, but he forced himself to deal with it head-on.

“It means sweetheart…or darling,” he whispered, “a term of endearment.”

She placed the bars down and slowly walked to him, her chest rising and falling more than normal, her heart bursting with affection for this man.

“Mando…” she whispered back. They stood, her chest brushing lightly against his beskar. The look in her eyes was captivating, he raised a gloved hand to her face, cupping her face and softly brushing his thumb across her cheek. He was about to place his helmeted forehead against hers in a keldabe kiss but then…the kid started crying, breaking them out of their moment.

She was about to move past him, but he placed his hand on her hip, “I’ll go this time…” and then he was moving up the ladder to console his son.

She shook her head, placing the back of her hand against her hot forehead, she could feel the heat on her face. She turned and finished putting the food away. She grabbed her bag and went into her quarters. She separated the new clothes, setting them aside on the floor. They needed to be washed first but she’d have to install the washing unit tomorrow, it was already getting pretty late.

She paused when she saw the last item in her bag.

_The tapestry._

His reaction to her little gestures of affection with the food had warmed her whole body. She was happy that she was able to give him something like that, even though they were small. But now that she looked down at the tapestry, she found herself a bit nervous at the thought of hanging it up in the hull. She didn’t want to overstep in anyway. The last thing she would want to do is be disrespectful or cross a line when it came to his culture, his creed.

She left the item hidden in her bag and hung it up on the hook in the corner. The child had stopped crying, she toed off her boots and removed her holster, hanging it on a different hook on the other side of the wall. She walked back out to the kitchen, she grabbed the Caf-machine and placed it on the counter, setting it up for the next morning.

She picked the compact laundry unit with a little bit of difficulty, the thing was smaller than a normal one, because that’s what was needed for a ship, but the damn thing was still kriffing heavy. She set it in the space in the wall and then closed up the crate, pushing it to the back of the hull near the rear exit ramp to store it away.

After she had cleaned everything up, she stood there listening, there were no sounds coming from above. Mando hadn’t come back down, her heart sunk a bit, maybe she had pushed too much. She should reign it in. She glanced up and then spun on her heal and locked herself in her room. She changed into her boy-shorts and loose camisole and crawled into bed.

* * *

He should’ve gone back down. He should’ve said goodnight. Instead, he closed himself in the cockpit after rocking the child back to sleep. He could admit that he had panicked slightly. He had never felt this way about a woman, ever, in his life. And he didn’t even _know_ exactly what the feeling was.

Okay, fine, he knew, he just couldn’t admit it to himself just yet. He knew that women found him attractive for some reason, pushing up against him like that Twi’lek back at the cantina, even when he hadn’t said a single word to them. They had no idea what kind of man he was, what he was capable of, the things he’d done in the past.

They had no understanding of his culture, his creed, his Way. Ignorant to the fact that he wouldn’t take his helmet off for any of them, ever.

But Katlin…she was different. Instead of throwing herself at him the first time he walked into her cantina, she had actually pushed back at his questioning. Defensive and protecting someone close to her, keeping the town safe, first and foremost, and then she had actually teased him.

_“Hm, a Mandalorian you say? I don’t know, what does this person look like?”_

And then she almost sacrificed herself to save that child back in Mos Pelgo, and then strapped a kriffing Deathhammer to her leg and followed him into battle against a damn Krayt dragon. Popping her used power pack out and reloading in a motion so smooth and fast that anyone else that wasn’t him would’ve missed it.

 _AND THEN_ , she protected the child, took care of him, soothed him, cared for him.

And then she smiled at him, smirked at him, bit her lip at him, blushing and looking at him with _that_ look in her eyes.

He threw his head back against his seat, looking up into the dark sky, obstructed by the looming trees. He sighed.

_And then he fell in love with her._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mando'a Translation: 
> 
> Mesh'la - beautiful
> 
> Ad'ika - son/daughter ; little one
> 
> Cyar'ika - darling/sweetheart


	10. Chapter 10

Mando woke up far past when he normally would. He spent the majority of the night stewing in the cockpit, his head engulfed with thoughts of her. It was still early enough in the morning that he could hear the birds chirping in the trees, he could also hear the sounds of clanking reverberating through the ship. He exited the cockpit and saw his room door open and the child missing from his hammock. He slid down the ladder into the hull.

When he turned, he could see the ramp door was down, the hull illuminated in the early dawn sun, the air still a bit dewy. The kid was sitting at the top of the ramp playing with some toys. Mando smiled under the helmet, realizing that Kat must’ve picked them up in the market. Mando walked forward and turned his head to the left, towards the clanking noise. He saw his tool-box sitting open on the floor, a few tools spread over the floor.

Kat was standing half submerged into the open compartment in the wall, seemingly trying to install the new laundry unit. He couldn’t help his wandering eyes, as he stared at her plump ass. Her tight black pants hugging her curves. He _was_ still a man after-all and she was quite literally the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. His eye’s trailed up, locking onto the strip of skin peeking out between her pants and her gray tank top that was riding up her toned abdomen. From this angle, he could see the small dimples at the bottom of her back, right above the swell of her butt. He swallowed and forced himself to stop ogling her like a creep in the corner. He stepped forward and peered over her, trying to gauge her progress.

“Do you need a hand with that?” He asked.

Kat jolted, startled by his voice, and heard the wrench slip from her hands and clatter loudly against the metal of the ship. He bit his lip to stop the laugh that was building up inside him as he heard Kat swearing under her breath while backing out of the wall.

“Son of a kriffing bantha…” she mumbled lowly.

She turned towards him; her red bandana wrapped around her braided hair. She had a streak of grease on her cheek and her hands were dirty. And he had an urge to shove her against the wall.

“Mando…” she narrowed her eyes at him, “I didn’t hear you come down.”

“Bounty hunter.” He exclaimed, tilting his head to look over her shoulder into the compartment, “Do you know what you’re doing?”

She pursed her lips, glancing behind her and then back to him, “I’m certainly no mechanic, but I know the basics.”

He stared at her for a moment, “…Maybe I shoul…” she cut him off, “I’ve got this.”

He felt a little body wrapping around his boot, his son trying to get his attention by waving a stuffed Mudhorn at him.

“Good morning Ad’ika,” Mando scooped the child up, “I see you have some new toys.”

“Yeah, I noticed a shocking lack of them around the ship.” Kat gently scolded the man.

“He’s usually only interested in the silver ball from the cockpit.” Mando answered.

“That thing is a choking hazard, especially with how much this bean likes to eat anything and everything he can get his hands on.” She stated while affectionately rubbing the child’s head.

After a moment she looked up at Mando. “What does Ad’ika mean?” She pronounced the word perfectly.

“Little one,” Mando replied, “used to refer to a son or daughter, no matter how young or old.”

Kat giggled softly, looking back down at the baby, “Yes well, parents always see their children as their little ones, even when they are fully grown.” She kissed Ad’ika’s fuzzy little head and smirked at Mando, “Whether they are raised to be warriors or not.”

Mando watched as she spun around and continued working on the laundry unit.

“There’s fresh Caf in the pot,” Kat called back to him, her voice slightly muffled, “After I finish this, I was thinking we could take Ad’ika for a walk?” His heart soared at the fact she referred to his son in the same way he did, claiming him as _her_ son as well.

“Sure.” He replied. He set the boy down and watched as he rushed over to his other toys. He turned to grab a cup of the spiced Caf, the scent wafting through the ship. He went up to his quarters for some privacy, his mind automatically floating back to the woman below. He pulled the small object out of his pocket, rubbing a thumb over it slowly. He had spotted it in the market yesterday and snuck away to purchase it when Kat was distracted. He just couldn’t help himself.

About ten minutes later he made his way back down the ladder, he heard a small ‘whirring’ sound and the quiet sloshing of water. He found Kat leaning against the table-crate facing the newly installed laundry unit, a load of clothes already inside. The second she saw him, she smirked, waving the wrench in his direction, “See, I told you Mando.”

He nodded, “Good job.”

She started to pack up the tools, “Let me grab my blaster and throw some snacks in my bag and we can head out.”

* * *

Less than five minutes later, they were walking slowly through the forest jungle, letting the kid wander a few feet ahead so he could explore. Mando constantly scanning their surroundings for any threats. He glanced over to Kat, she had no armor, not even wearing her jacket today. She was just wearing that small tank top, blaster on her leg and knife in her boot.

“So…” Katlin started, “It’s occurred to me that I really don’t know much about you Mando.”

“What do you want to know?”

“Hmm, well” she paused, “I would never want to pressure you into sharing anything you don’t want too.” She looked at him, “So if there’s something you don’t want to tell, just say so.”

He nodded, “Deal.” He figured she would immediately ask him something but there was a few minutes of silence between them, both watching over the kid as the little one picked up rocks and threw them as they walked.

“What’s your favorite color?”

His head snapped her way, well that’s definitely not the type of question he thought she’d ask.

“…I gotta be honest, that’s not what I was expecting.” He replied. A small smile graced her lips as she reached over and plucked a Kibo flower from the shrub on her left.

“I figured we would start small.” She said, “And I don’t want to just…pry into your past, I want to know _you_. I like these kinds of questions. They’re…simple.”

The corner of his mouth quirked up in a small smile, he hadn’t ever really thought about it before, he thought back to the first time he saw her eyes, the golden-amber eyes glimmering like honey in the sun.

“Amber.” Finally answering her question. She looks at him and smiles, knowing.

“Okay…Favorite food?” she continues her questioning.

“Can’t be picky in a galaxy like this.” He stated.

She cocked her head in mock annoyance, “I _know_ , but come on, everyone has that one comfort food.”

“I like roba pie, it’s Mandalorian” he explained, “It was rare in the Covert, we would only have it for a special occasion. It’s made from porcine meat, which is still available, but it has to be imported from Aralia.”

She was looking at him fully, listening in genuine interest as he shared a small fact about himself. He ducked his head, happy that the helmet hid his burning blush from her. No one had ever asked him these kinds of questions before. The only question he ever really got was about the helmet.

They went on like this for quite some time, her asking superficial questions here and there, not pressing him for anything more. Soon they heard the trickle of water coming from a small stream ahead. They followed the stream until they walked into a small opening among the trees. There was a small pond in the center, the water crystal clear with lily pads floating on top. It was a gem hidden away amongst the forestry. Quiet and serene.

“Looks like the perfect place to stop for lunch.” She said, walking forward towards a flat boulder on the edge of the pond, placing her bag down and sliding off her boots. She rolled up her pants and called to the kid, encouraging him to follow her to the water’s edge.

Mando walked closer and leaned against a nearby tree, watching the two and occasionally scanning the tree-line. Kat took the baby’s robe and boots off, letting him, splashing around in just his little loincloth. She bent down, digging in the water for small flat rocks, she handed one to the child and murmured at him quietly, trying to teach him how to skip it over the water. He couldn’t grasp the concept, but he had fun throwing them into the water, causing water to splash up in his face. Mando watched on fondly, listening to his son’s squeals of happiness and Kat’s responding laughter.

After some time of letting the child play in the water, Kat scooped him up and placed him on the rocky boulder. She handed the kid a pickled ration bar and pulled a canister of water from her pack. She filled the lid, using it as a cup and handed it to the child. She pulled out a field ration pack, and a second canister of water and brought it over to Mando.

He started to hold his hand up in protest, but she quickly shut him down. “Nuh-uh, here.” She bumped the items into his chest-plate gently. “The child and I will face the other direction, we won’t look.” And then she turned and headed towards the boulder, sitting facing the pond with the child between her legs, and ate her own ration bar.

After eating, they let the child continue to explore and play. It was nice to get him out of the confines of the ship. They made their way back just before sunset. At the half-way point, the child started to get fussy, clearly tired from his adventure. Kat picked him up and he snuggled into her neck, gripping the top of her tank with a small hand.

* * *

As soon as they got back Kat put the child down for the night, when she re-entered the hull, she noticed the ramp was still down. Peering out, she saw Mando had started a small fire. It was the perfect night for it, the temperate climate of Yavin-4 was turning slightly brisk this evening. Kat quickly folded the clothes, separating them on the table-crate, and threw the last load in. Untying the bandana she was using as a headband and throwing it in as well.

Her scalp was screaming at her by now, so she quickly undid the halo braid, letting her tresses fall down in loose waves. Right before walking outside, she rifled through the small cabinets in the kitchen. Just as she was about to give up on her hopeful endeavor, she spotted a bottle of amber colored fire-water tucked in the back of the last cabinet in the corner.

It was three quarters of the way full, indicating that Mando wasn’t a big drinker, _probably too busy_ , she thought, but he did in fact like to wind down when it was needed. She ambled down the ramp, bottle in hand at her side, and made her way to Mando. He was sitting by the fire with one leg propped up, an arm resting on top. When she reached him, his head turned her way, she held the bottle up, shaking it slightly from side-to-side.

“You’ve been holding out on me Mando.” She teased softly. She heard him let out a quiet laugh. “You’re not going to make me drink alone are you?” she asked him, one brow raised.

She held up a finger, twirling it in a circle, and then plopped down next to him with her back towards him. She heard him move into place behind her and the telltale hiss of the helmet being removed. She gently eased back against him, relaxing into his warmth. She felt him relax a bit as well, and she smiled. She popped the top off the bottle and took a swig, passing it behind her.

Her eyes watered just a bit from the burn of the liquor, “Whew, where the hell did you pick that up?”

She heard him take a drink, “Nevarro.”

“Hmm…I wouldn’t mind going back there at some point.” She said, “I like Cara and Karga, they seem like good people.”

“Cara was the first person I trusted outside of my covert.” He replied, “Karga…has definitely changed since the kid saved his life. He used to be kind of a dick.”

She turned her head a bit looking into the fire, “The kid saved his life?”

Mando took another drink and then passed it back to her, “Yeah, he can heal people with his powers, but it really takes a lot out of him, so I try to keep him from doing it.”

“Amazing,” she said as she lifted the bottle to her lips, the burn starting to feel good, “You know…” she trailed off, not sure if she should even say anything.

“What?” Mando pressed.

She huffed a laughed, biting the inside of her cheek, “I thought you and Cara…were…like maybe together or something.”

His back tensed slightly and there was an awkward beat of silence, “You…what?!” he sounded confused.

“I don’t know!” she laughed, “I thought I was seeing some signs…”

He cleared his throat, “Um, no. Just friends who respect and trust each other.”

“Yeah, I realize that now…” she said softly. She took a small sip and passed the bottle.

“So…where are you from?” she asked.

He took a long drink, “I was born on Aq Vetina, but it was attacked by battle droids during the Clone Wars, wiped it out.” He took another drink, “My parents hid me, the Mandalorians saved me, my parents had been killed, so they took me in as a foundling.”

She reach back, sliding her hand down his arm and laced her fingers with his. “I’m so sorry.” She replied softly.

“It was a long time ago.” He responded.

“How old were you?” she questioned.

“I’m not sure…seven…maybe eight?”

She squeezed his hand, “You were so young…” she whispered, “And here I am feeling sorry for myself because I lost my parents in my early twenties.”

“It doesn’t matter how old,” he assured her, “it still hurts. Stays with you for the rest of your life.”

She could feel her eyes start to well up at the hurt in his voice. Only people who have experienced the loss of a parent can understand. It rips a hole through you that you can never fix. You can do nothing to make it better, you just get better at pushing it to the back of your mind with time.

“What were they like? Your parents?” she asked.

“From what I can remember…they were good, normal, peaceful people.” He continued softly, “My mother was beautiful."

She felt a hot tear fall down her face. She couldn’t help but picture Mando as a little boy of seven, scared and hiding alone while droids destroyed everything and everyone around him. Another tear fell. And then she had to sniffle to keep her nose from running.

_Kriff. I hope he didn’t hear that._

He definitely heard it. She felt him immediately move and the sound of his helmet going on. She leaned forward slightly, no longer supported by his body. He whipped around fast, as she tried to wipe the tears away before he saw. But she wasn’t fast enough.

He turned her towards him gently, lifting her face up to him with a finger under her chin. And her kriffing body betrayed her as another tear fell down her face.

“Hey,” Mando whispered, “Hey, please don’t cry Mesh’la.” He cupped her face on both sides and wiped her tears away with his thumbs.

“I’m sorry.” She said, “I just can’t imagine how scared you must’ve been.”

“I was.” He replied, “But then the Mandalorians came, and I was safe.”

She looked into his visor, her eyes welling up again with tears, “I’m happy they found you,” she sniffed “If it wasn’t for that, if you weren’t who you are today, I never would’ve met you.” She shut her eyes, tears down her cheeks, and then looked at him again, “But you deserved that normal, peaceful life that was ripped from you.”

He felt his heart seize at her words. He brushed her tears away again, “Cyar’ika…” and then he gently pressed the forehead of his helmet to hers. After a moment he pulled back, he shifted them towards the fire and pulled her to his chest.

Kat leaned against Mando, her head resting on his shoulder. They sat watching the flames crackle and pop. His arm wrapped around her, his hand playing with her hair.

“I remember you saying your father moved your family to Tatooine,” he said, “Where are you from?”

She cleared her throat, smiling softly at the memory of her home planet, “I was born on Pamarthe.” She answered.

“I’ve heard of it, but never been.” Mando said, “I’ve heard of the Port in the Storm drink.”

Kat giggled, “Ah, yeah, it’s lethal even in small doses.” She continued on, “My father was a Pamarthen born and bred, which is how he became such a hot-shot pilot for the Rebellion. Pamarthe is famous for producing the best pilots in the galaxy,” she explained, “He decided to take shore leave on Baraan-Fa, since it’s an ocean planet covered in beautiful islands. It’s where he met my mother, she was the daughter of a well-off trade merchant. Within two weeks, they fell in love and were married. Apparently, her father was livid, so my mother left, told my father to take her to Pamarthe.”

They sat in a comfortable silence for a few minutes, “So how come you didn’t become a pilot like your dad?” Mando asked.

“My dad flew an X-Wing before he was chosen to join Blade Squadron where he switched to the B-Wing.” She said, “He had been a career fighter pilot since he was very young, he took leave as much as he could to spend time with us, but he was gone a lot.” She continued, “I guess there was just never the opportunity. And then we moved to Tatooine when I turned sixteen.”

It was quiet for a few minutes.

“I guess there was also a part of me that didn’t want to leave my mother alone.” She said softly.

Mando pushed her hair aside, and absent-mindedly brushed his fingers over her neck. Her eyes fluttered at the feeling. After a minute she tilted her head up to look at him, he looked at her.

“Thank you…for telling me about them Mando.” She said quietly.

“Din.” He rasped, “Din Djarin.”

Her heart exploded, her eyes widened, and then she slowly sat up and faced him, only a few inches separating the two. She brought her hand up to the indented cheek of his helmet.

“It’s nice to meet you, Din Djarin.” She whispered, smiling softly. “I’m Katlin Fanty.”

She couldn’t see the love in his eyes under the helmet, but she did hear his intake of breath when she said his name for the first time. Din hadn’t given his name to anyone since he was a boy, and the sound of it coming from her lips was the sweetest sound he’d ever heard.

“Close your eyes.” He whispered.

She didn’t register right away what he said, still distracted with the fact that he told her his name.

She blinked, “What?”

“Close your eyes Cyar’ika.” He repeated.

She closed her eyes, trusting him unconditionally. She heard the hiss of his helmet coming off and the thud of it hitting the ground. She swallowed in anticipation, as she felt his hand cup her cheek. His thumb brushed over her lips and they parted in a small gasp.

She focused on keeping her eyes closed, relying on the feel of touch alone. His forehead pressed lightly against hers, his nose brushed hers, and then his lips met hers. The kiss was soft and tender, but full of emotion. He broke away far too soon for her liking but kept his forehead resting on hers. She slowly brought her hand up, finding his chin first, brushing her fingers over his lips just like he did to her, then to his cheek, she bit her lip at the feel of his facial hair.

“Din…” she breathed. And then their lips met again, full of fire and passion. She couldn’t help the moan that came from her throat. Her hand carded through his hair, relishing in the slight curls and she cupped the back of his head, pressing him closer to her.

His tongue slid tentatively over her lower lip, begging for entrance, her lips parted immediately and his tongue delved into her mouth. Tasting each other over and over. Finally, they had to separate, both breathing heavily. His hand caressed her cheek once more and then he broke away from her. Her body missing his the second he did.

She heard his replace his helmet, “You can open your eyes now Mesh’la.”

Her eyes fluttered open slowly, “You have no idea how long I’ve thought about that.” she admitted.

“Oh?” she could hear the cockiness in his voice, “How long exactly?”

She pursed her lips slightly, amused by his teasing tone, “Pretty much since you leaned up against the counter in my cantina.”

He let out a low, rumbling laugh, the kind that made her squeeze her thighs together, “Well, good to know I wasn’t the only one.”

Her eyes widened a bit and felt herself flush pink at his confession. How is it possible that this man made her feel like a giddy teenager with her first crush?

_Ridiculous._

“It’s getting late,” he said, “we should try to get some rest.”

“I suppose you’re right,” she sighed, “or else the little munchkin is going to wear us out tomorrow.”

He stood up, holding a hand-out for her and walking slowly back to the Crest.

Kat laid awake in her bunk that night, not falling asleep for a while, her head and heart full of thoughts of Din Djarin.

Din laid awake in his bunk that night, not falling asleep for a while, his head and heart full of thoughts of Katlin Fanty.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning! This chapter has explicit content!

Katlin was outside with the bean, it was late in the afternoon, but an absolutely beautiful day. She had decided to have lunch outside with the child, enjoying the warm sun and cool breeze. She had left Din’s lunch in the kitchen, ensuring he would have privacy before brushing against his back on the way out of the ship. She could feel his eyes on her backside as she went.

She was currently laying down on a patch of grass, the baby sitting on her stomach, she was trying to get him to take a small nap since he had woken them up at the break of dawn this morning. She knew he was tired, but he was fighting sleep. She started bouncing him up and down, wiggling his little arms back and forth. It was causing him to giggle wildly with every movement and before long Kat found herself laughing with him. She saw a flash of movement in the corner of her eye and looked up to see Din leaning against the open hatch of the ship, watching them with a hand hooked in his utility belt. Looking far too sexy for his own good.

She was brought out of her distracted state when the baby curled up on her tummy, falling asleep with a quiet coo. She rubbed his back softly as she slowly sat up and tried making her way to her feet without jostling him too much. She made her way up the ramp to meet Din.

“He’s finally out.” She whispered quietly, looking down lovingly at the munchkin.

Din reached out to brush a finger over the little one’s ear, needing to have contact with his son every so often. She’s never heard Din openly tell the boy he loves him but it’s very apparent in every touch and look, well okay, tilt of his helmet.

“Let me go put him down really quick.” She said quietly to not wake the baby.

She ambled up to Mando’s room, getting much better at balancing a child and climbing a ladder at the same time. Once she made sure he was safely secure in his hammock, she made her way back to the man waiting below. She slid down the ladder and turned to see Din standing in front of the armory with the doors wide open. She walked up next to him, once again appreciating the beautiful collection he had acquired over his years of bounty hunting.

“I was thinking today would be a good day for some target practice,” Din said as he reached over to grab a specific blaster. She could hardly contain her excitement as he checked the power pack and safety before handing it to her. He pulled out a silver DT-29 that had a dark brown wooden grip and a black and silver A-180, both heavily modified. Actually almost his entire collection was.

“So did you buy all of these already modified or did you do it yourself?” Kat asked.

“Some were bought that way, most I did myself.” He answered.

“I was going to say, I’m pretty sure DT-29’s don’t come standard with a stun option.” She said with a smirk.

He handed her a few spare power packs, before heading down the ramp, Kat following right beside him. He shut the ramp and locked it with a hit of a button on his vambrace, making sure the child was safe.

“You seem to know a lot about blasters.” Din was impressed, and a little turned on if he were being completely honest.

She smiled confidently, “Well you know my dad taught me how to shoot,” she began, “he had a small collection of his own that I was able to practice with.” She laughed, “He actually would make me sit down and learn how to take one apart, clean it, and put it back together again before he would even let me shoot it.”

“Smart man.” Mando answered, nodding his head.

“He had a few books laying around as well, all about different types of blasters, rifles, etc.” she explained, “In a town like Mos Pelgo, there was little else to do besides read.”

They walked a little ways into the trees, but not too far, wanting to be close to the child still sleeping in the Crest. They continued to talk as Din went around and carved makeshift targets into various trees with his boot knife.

“You said your dad gave you your blaster?” he asked, “Why the Deathhammer?”

“Yeah,” she answered, “And because it was my favorite. It always just felt right in my hand, so he’d always be sure to leave it with me when he was gone.”

“What happened to the rest of them?”

She sighed, “Well he had his service weapon when he was gone, but he would always take another with him just in case, usually his DL-44.” She went on, “He had two others, and a rifle, an A310, but they were stolen by the raider that broke into our house.”

She heard him grunt in displeasure as he made his way back over to her. She smiled sadly at him in response, “Nothing to be done about it, it’s been years. They’re long gone by now.”

He nodded her way and then motioned for her to take a shot, “If you can handle these three blasters, I’ll trust you with my Amban rifle.”

She gasped playfully while aiming the DE-10, “Ooo, you mean you’d let me handle your rifle Din?” she teased him with a smirk.

She saw his head snap towards her out of the corner of her eye but didn’t give him time to respond as she shot a bullseye into every target in quick succession. He looked from the targets and then back to her slowly, she shot him a saucy wink and he just shook his head in amusement. He switched the DE out with the DT and watched as she tried to get a good feel for the handle. She shot each target, a bit slower than before and not as accurately.

This blaster had to be reloaded after six shots and seeing as how he only set up six targets, she popped the pack and reloaded before trying again. A bit better this time around but he could tell she couldn’t get a good feel on this one. He stepped up behind her, pulling her flush against his beskar, she looked over her shoulder at him with another one of those little smirks gracing her lips. He thought briefly about kissing it off her face, before turning his attention back to the targets.

She turned and quickly replaced the pack once again before he reached up and fixed her hands into a better position around the flat handle of the blaster, with one cupped under for better support. He had to admit, the grip on this one could be a little awkward.

“Try again.” He rasped into her ear.

She felt a small shiver shoot up her spine at the sound of his sexy voice and had to take a deep breath before re-aiming. She did better this round, but she decided this was not the blaster for her. She switched it out for his A-180, excited for this one almost as excited as she was for the DE blaster.

He stepped up next to her, watching again as she got a feel for the weapon. He could tell immediately that this one was just as comfortable in her hand as the first one and watched again as she hit every target perfectly.

He laughed, “I shouldn’t be surprised, I mean I did see you in action against the Krayt dragon.”

She hit the safety while they bantered back and forth, “Don’t stroke my ego too much,” she replied, “These are un-moving targets after-all.”

“You’re fooling no one Fanty.” He quipped back at her.

She bit her lip and flashed a playful look his way, “Maybe I should pretend to suck more, so you’ll press me up against that beskar of yours again.”

She went into a fit of laughter as he shuffled from one leg to the other, obviously riled by her shameless flirting. His face as red as a Tatooine sunset underneath the helmet. He shook his head as he slid behind her again, hands on her hips.

“You play your cards right,” he whispered into her ear, “and maybe I’ll even take the beskar off for you.”

She stood in complete shock with her mouth agape, definitely not expecting his response. Their afternoon went on like this for a bit before they decided to make their way back to their green bean.

* * *

After a short discussion, they had decided they would be leaving their little hidden oasis on Yavin-4 the next morning. As much as they might want to spend their days in recluse, they knew that they needed to head to Corvus, and they both knew that they were stalling. Neither of them wanted to even think about the fact that they might have to hand their adi’ka over to this unknown Jedi.

The day melted away into another cool evening, Din once again preparing a fire, while Kat gathered some food for their dinner. She made her way over to her boys carrying a plate of fresh meat and vegetables to be roasted over the fire. She prepared the food, making sure the child was satisfied and then prepared a plate for Din.

“Not used to eating like this.” He said as she made sure her and the child were not in eyesight of him while he ate.

She smiled, “I noticed, but I’m here now so…” she trailed off as she popped some food into her mouth.

Soon after, bellies full, they were lounging lazily around the fire. Kat was rolling the little silver ball back and forth to the child. Din had been quiet for most of the evening, but it was comfortable, contented, not an awkward quiet. That put her at ease, despite their flirting earlier during their shooting session, not much else had happened between them. Kat couldn’t help replaying the kiss from the night before and found her eyes on him often throughout the day.

Before long, the child was leaning against her legs, eyes starting to droop. She watched his little chest rise and drop with slow breaths as she ran her fingers over his head, easing him into a deep slumber. After a few minutes of this, Din stood up and gathered the boy into his arms.

“I’ll take him up.” He said softly.

She laid back, propped up on an elbow, relaxing as she stared into the fire. A small pang of sadness, at the fact that this would be their last night here. A soft smile on her lips as she thought about how much had changed between her and Mando since they landed here. From friendly banter, to flirting and teasing that led to the absolutely mind-blowing make-out session.

“What are you thinking about that’s making you smile like that?” Din asked as he sat down next to her, much closer than before. Kat tilted her head up, her smile even bigger now that he had rejoined her.

“You.” She replied softly.

He answered with a warm hum. She scooted over to him, closing the last few inches between them and snuggled into his side. He threw an arm around her, brushing his fingers up and down her arm.

“So,” he started, “what’s your favorite color?” His question surprised her to the point where she actually leaned forward for a second, looking at him in shocked awe. Warmth spread through her body at the fact that he was asking her the same superficial questions she had asked him the day prior. Showing her that he wanted to know those tiny details about her as well.

“Hmm…I’ve always liked black, but who knows, it might change at some point.” She stated, snuggling back into his side.

“Should’ve guessed from your wardrobe.” He teased, “Favorite food?”

“Well definitely nothing from Pamarthe,” she laughed, “I mean the food tastes fine, but almost everything smells quite…pungent there. So…I guess, I’d have to say Chokie.”

“Never had it.” He responded.

“Well, lucky for you, I picked some up at the market.”

“Alright, favorite flower?” he asked.

She pursed her lips in thought, “Can’t say I’ve thought about it much to be honest,” she said, “My mother used to like musk-roses before we moved to Tatooine.”

They went on like that for a while, casually talking back and forth, learning more small details about one another. Until she decided to take the leap and dig deeper.

“So, can I ask about the Mandalorians who raised you?” she questioned softly, unsure.

“What would you like to know?”

“Anything you’re okay with telling me.” She responded, “Like I said, I don’t want to push you.”

“Mesh’la, you can ask me whatever you want.” He replied. She looked up into his visor lovingly, his words hitting her like a train. He was placing a lot of trust in her, and the weight of that was not lost on her, it meant the world.

“In that case, I guess I want to know…everything.” She said, “I just want to know as much as I can about you Din.”

His helmet tilted down at her, eyes roving over her in thought, still brushing his fingers up and down her arm softly.

“Well, you know I was about seven or eight when they found me and took me to the covert.” He explained.

“Covert?”

“It’s a hidden location where different clans live.” He said, “Since the Purge, Mandalorians have had to hide to survive, only a few of us coming to the surface at a time to take jobs, to take care of the covert.” She stayed quiet for the most part, still looking up at him as he explained. “My covert was in the tunnel system under Nevarro.”

“Was?” she questioned.

A beat of silence, a troubled sigh, “When I went back for the kid, it caused a skirmish to break out in town,” he continued, “The tracking fobs started going off again, and before long I was surrounded by every bounty hunter on planet at the time, Karga at the forefront.”

“Wait, don’t hunters have like…a code…to not attack one another?”

“Yeah, this is true, but I broke the code first by going back and taking the child from the Imperials.” He answered. “I was considered fair game at that point.”

Kat let out a disgruntled hum, hating the picture he was painting in her mind.

“Don’t worry, Karga handled it, I’m even able to rejoin the guild if I wanted to, but I have more important things to focus on now.”

“Anyway,” he continued, “I was pinned down, trying to shield the kid and escape to the Crest, when the other Mandalorians from my covert came. They provided cover fire while I slipped away with the child. Later on, during the fight with Gideon, when we used the tunnels to escape Nevarro once again, I came upon a pile of Mandalorian armor.” Kat could practically feel the sadness and guilt rolling off him. He went on, “The Armorer told me a lot of them were killed by the Imperials after the skirmish with the guild.”

He fell silent after that, Kat felt an overwhelming abundance of sadness, he had lost his parents, his first home, and then he lost his family and home _again._ The galaxy was truly an unfair place.

“I’m so sorry Din.” She whispered.

He let out a deep breath, seemingly grounding his emotions once again, “We like to think some of them got away and are still out there somewhere.”

Kat had a sudden, heart-wrenching thought and sat up, facing him, “What about the foundlings?” she asked concerned.

“They were led away.”

“Good,” she breathed, “Who’s the armorer?”

“She was the tribe’s blacksmith, she was the one who forged our beskar, who determined signets for the different clans,” he explained, “she was the leader of our tribe, and greatly respected.”

“A woman,” she mused, “I like that, in this galaxy women aren’t usually seen as equals…you said ‘was’…did she…?” she asked trailing off.

“No, well I don’t think so.” He stated, “She refused to come with us, insisting she had to finish melting down the armor before she could leave. She covered our retreat from Gideon’s troopers, but she’s a fierce warrior. So I believe she’s alive.”

“You’ll see her again someday.” Kat replied softly. She reached forward, caressing the cheek of his helmet. “Thank you, Din.” She wanted to express how much it meant to her that he was willing to share so much with her. Things she knew he had never shared with any other before.

He grabbed her hand, holding it as he sat up fully, “I…have something for you, Cyar’ika.” He reached into his pocket, pulling out the small gift. He held up a necklace, it was a small, flat, plain circle of pure beskar, about an inch in diameter, hanging from a black cord.

Kat gasped, her breath catching in her throat, her eyes going wide. “You…you got this for me?” she whispered.

“I saw it in the market and thought of you, couldn’t help myself.” He responded.

Kat knew how rare beskar was these days, he must’ve paid a small fortune for this, just because he wanted her to wear a token of something so important to him. The gesture was not lost on her, she knew this was a way for him to claim her as part of his clan, as best he could at this moment in time. They were in this weird limbo, where they were obviously important to one another, their relationship moving towards something more intimate, but still not at that point where they were committing on an official capacity.

“Din…it’s absolutely beautiful.” She said breathlessly, as she brushed a thumb across the smooth disc. “Vor entye.”

“Aliit ori’shya tal’din.” He uttered softly. She cocked her head at the phrase, clearly one she hadn’t learned. “Family is more than blood.” He translated. Kat could feel her eyes starting to mist at his words, looking down and blinking the wetness away.

“Help me put it on?” she asked as she twisted around for him. He fastened the cord tightly, ensuring it wouldn’t come loose. The circle of beskar sat right in the center of her sternum in between her breasts. She turned back towards him, and he reached forward, brushing a finger over the metal as it glinted in the fire-light. She could feel her heartbeat increase as he did so, a faint blush forming on her cheeks.

His gaze made its way to her flushed face before she could hide it and his mouth went dry. She was looking at him with heavy lidded eyes, and as she bit her lip, he couldn’t hold himself back any longer.

“Close your eyes.” He rasped, his voice hitting that low octave that caused her thighs to clench automatically. Her eyes fluttered shut, and before she could even register him removing his helmet, his lips were brushing against hers softly. Her hands slid into his hair, and he let out a small groan as her nails raked against his scalp. She snapped at the sound, turning the kiss into a much more passionate one. She had been thinking about his lips almost non-stop since the night before.

She focused on keeping her eyes shut and keeping their lips connected as she slowly rose and climbed into his lap, straddling him. She let out a keening moan as she felt his hands slide around her waist. One hand moved up, between her shoulder blades, pressing her chest against his. When her necklace lightly bounced against his chest-plate, producing a low clang, unmistakable to pure beskar, his other hand slid down to grasp her ass. She gasped in surprise, her mouth opening just in time for his tongue to plunge into her mouth. They warred back and forth, and then she tugged lightly on his hair, causing him to groan lowly. The hand on her ass slid ever lower, his finger brushing over the seam of her clothed cunt. She broke the kiss, her head falling back on a breathy moan. His lips instantly found the column of her throat, pressing hot kisses there as she slowly rocked against him. She could feel his hardness forming against her thigh, his hand moving up and down gently, and continuously brushing the tips of his fingers over her most sensitive spot. She arched against him as his mouth landed on her chest, sucking a hot kiss into the swell of her right breast, right next to the necklace. He could feel her pounding heart against his lips.

“Din…” she moaned his name, he pulled back and she immediately curled in towards him, placing her forehead against him. They were both breathing heavy and trembling slightly in anticipation.

“Keep those pretty eyes closed,” he whispered against her lips, “and wrap your legs around me Mesh’la.”

She maneuvered around smoothly, doing as he asked, and then she was lifted up as he stood, carrying her towards the Crest with one hand cradling her ass and his helmet in the other.


End file.
